The Emperor’s Babe

"One of the exciting things for me about this novel is the verse aspect. It’s hard to know quite how to describe it. It’s so rhythmic, and the use of language is so beautiful. But it’s also playful and irreverent. I really like that irreverence applied to Roman Britain, because one of the things about British education is that the Classical world is treated with a huge amount of reverence. Only the elite have access to it‚ it being taught in private schools and not in state schools. So it’s great to see a Black writer parodying aspects of it, playing with it, so that the Romans are going around in Armani togas, all these anachronisms. The language draws on Latin, but also East End slang. So it’s doing many things. Also, what’s very, very important to me, is that it’s a kind of revisionist look at history. It’s saying, yes, there was a Black presence in Roman Britain. It’s contesting the whole idea of Britishness. That seems important too. We tend to think that Black people arrived with the Windrush. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . A few years ago, there was a version of A Christmas Carol on the BBC, and it was cast with Black characters. I looked on the internet to see its reception, and so many people were complaining, saying: ‘Black people in Victorian Britain? This is all rubbish!’ ‘Political correctness gone mad!’ That kind of thing. Actually, there has been a strong Black presence in Britain since Roman times. Greater or lesser, depending on the period, but certainly it existed. So I loved The Emperor’s Babe for asserting that and bringing it to light. It’s a novel that you can access on all kind of different levels. A lot of people would be a bit scared to approach it, but its incredibly accessible. If you’re not confident reading poetry, simply read it as a story. It works at that level too. So, it’s really complex, but anyone can access it and get something out of it. That sums it up perfectly. It’s also a novel that has lots of different moods in it. Sometimes its quiet, sometimes full of life. It’s vibrant, really noisy. You can almost smell the things she describes, its so vividly written. It’s all mashed up into this lovely Londinium, one of senators and the rich, but also people like Zuleika, who describes herself as speaking “plebby Creole”."