On Brexit
My dad came over from Nigeria in the ‘60s, my mum came from Jamaica, married, had me, I was born in Cornwall and we grew up in Hertfordshire, so I’ve never had that urban experience like in London or Birmingham, which is quite different for Black people. I’m fairly conspicuous but I move around the world quite comfortably and feel at home here, and people are generally very warm and welcoming. But the climate changed in advance of Brexit. Two days after the vote I went to a nearby town and a man on scaffolding said ‘If I were that girl I’d leave the country’. First of all: ‘girl’! I was so indignant, so outraged, so taken aback I couldn’t believe it. I’m 44 and I’ve never had that, and yet that happened two days after this vote.
There has been a resurgence of the far right, and they’re getting stronger in a lot of countries across Europe and that needs to be taken seriously. As I talk about in my book, it’s the villages and the old industrial towns. If you’re an author or anyone who engages with culture you have a certain degree of sensitivity and you can see the way someone looks at you, you can feel the change in atmosphere when you walk down the street. There were elements of society and viewpoints that people have kept to themselves or maybe struggled with, and now they feel free to express them. There’s real discomfort and some of it is absolutely justifiable, but what happened is that it was simplified and there were some people who were just sick of seeing too many brown faces in Waitrose and that’s why they voted to leave Europe. That’s what I was writing about and that’s why I was so angry.
On visible difference and being brave
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Cat: I’m queer and people don’t tend to clock on to that, so I feel my difference is largely invisible until I hold my girlfriend’s hand and get comments, and I find that attention very restrictive. I can go through life and not feel uncomfortable except in certain situations, so it’s interesting for me to hear from people who can’t do that because they’re always visible.
That hostile gaze is a terrible thing but what happens though, if you’re constantly conspicuous in that way you’d experience that… I’m not sure yet because it’s maybe early days but it may have made me braver as a writer, I feel like, bring it on, I’m out there already, my head is already above the parapet when I walk around the street so why not write in a slightly braver way.
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