19 October/20 October 2019 ★ FT Weekend 11Luke McShane has two
successful careers: financial
analyst in the City of
London and grandmaster.
Chess has been his priority
in 2019, and it paid off
handsomely on the Isle of
Man last weekend.
A purple patch of three
straight wins propelled the
Londoner, 35, into the joint
lead at the $430,000
tournament which has
attracted a high-class entry
headed by the world
champion, Magnus Carlsen.McShane has an original
style, not taking routine
principles of strategy for
granted, as he showed in his
third round win gainst hisa
Vietnamese opponent where
he advanced pawns in front
of his own castled black king
to create decisive threats.
Sharing the lead on 3.5/4,
McShane met Fabiano
Caruana, the US world No2
who last year played an epic
title match against Carlsen.
The Englishman got a
winning advantage withsubtle knight play, but, short
of time, missed several wins
of which the easiest
ironically would have been a
knight retreat to the backrow. Caruana escaped with a
draw, and McShane lost in
round six to China’s Wang
Hao who shared the lead
with the American going
into Wednesday’s rest day.
There are still five rounds to
go. Games are free and live
to watch online (3 pm start).
2337
Can you find a way to
checkmate Black’s solitary
mid-board king in just two
moves? It looks simple, but
there are hidden traps.
Solution, back page1.
2345678A B C D E F G HDiversions
POLYMATH ,044 SET BY SLEUTH 1
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1 A covering for chair-backs
(12)
7 An old name for the seventh
civil month in the Jewish
calendar (4)
11 Like a satanic force (7)
12 cots refer to it as a gowk S
(5,4)
13 1981 Grand National winner
(8)
14 Dylan, who was made
England rugby union captain
in 2016 (7)
16 A canoe waterway in Brazil
(7)
17 A white Belgian cheese (9)
18 1988 novel by Italian author
Umberto Eco (9,8)
22 A North American breed of
horse (9)
25 o destabilise mentally (7)T
27 In Greek mythology, a
son of Agamemnon and
Clytemnestra (7)
28 rench author who wrote F
the comic masterpiece
Gargantua and Pantagruel
(8)
30 A priest in the Roman
Catholic church (9)
31 Arthur, French symbolist
poet (1854-91) (7)
32 A north African species of
jackal (4)
33 zech-born writer noted for C
The Unbearable Lightness of
Being (5,7)DOWN
1 Alan, Oscar-nominated Actor
in the 2004 film The Aviator
(4)
2 Indian state whose capital is
Chennai (5,4)
3 US state whose nickname is
The Treasure State (7)
4 A scarlet dyestuff used for
colouring food (9)
5 Tennis player who won his
first Grand Slam singles title
at the 2014 Australian Open
(9,8)
6 The first of the Hebrew
patriarchs (7)
8 To make and sell an item
illegally (7)
9 Leeds United captain who
won 54 caps for Scotland
(5,7)
10 Comprehensive (3-5)
15 Another name for vitamin
P that regulates the
permeability of blood
capillaries (12)
19 The ritual act of washing (8)
20 Israeli prime minister from
1999 to 2001 (4,5)
21 Of a pain, sharp or cutting
(9)
23 Introduction to a book (7)
24 A tool for opening a locked
door from the outside (7)
26 English car marque and
company founded in 1907 (7)
29 A collection of old Norse
poems (4)The first correct entry drawn
on Wednesday October 30
wins a copy of The Chambers
Dictionary. Entries should be
addressed to Polymath No
1,044, Weekend FT, 1 Friday
Street London EC4M 9BT.
Solution and winner’s name on
November 2.
The 13th edition (2014) retains the much-loved features of The Cham-
bers Dictionary, including the unique quirky definitions for certain words.
There are more than 1,000 new words and meanings, and there is also a
new Word Lover’s Ramble, showing how English words and definitions
have changed over the history of the dictionary.Crossword 16,302 Set by Alberich
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1 Complained about unfilled
pothole in road (6)
5 Deficit in fuel is massive (8)
9 Claim Yorkshire town lacks
aspiration (8)
10 Prepared, with me going in for
a treatment (6)
11 Reptile saving one exotic bird
(6)
12 Fashionable point of view, for
example (8)
14 Food that by implication could
be too apt? (6,6)
18 Turn out as the Sun is
expected to do? (4,3,5)
22 Tailless insectivore, first among
perils for fly near the ground
(5-3)
25 Realise murderer must keep
quiet (4,2)
26 Artist, a towering figure around
Italy (6)
27 Troublemaker backed old-
fashioned businessman (8)
28 Possibly last page is
introduction to Michelangelo’s
David? (8)
29 In time, traitor will make
mistakes (6)DOWN
2 A desire that’s excessive? Yes
(6)
3 Agenda against the ounce,
presumably? (9)
4 Sadly, end involved swallowing
one’s pride? (6,3)
5 Boots perhaps mostly seen
with European woman’s
garment (7)
6 See, teacher upset tree-dweller
(5)
7 Not all glamorous ambassadors
dance (5)
8 Give up salt, a diet counsellor
initially ordered (8)
13 Moreover, nearly all saw? (3)
15 Dictator’s supreme rule (9)
16 Money handler wants safe in
back, after short time (9)
17 One composer or another
wanting daughter to support
sibling (8)
19 One is evenly matched (3)
20 It’s posh cooking, one argues
plausibly (7)
21 Mum is retrogressing fast (6)
23 Restaurant or some bars? (5)
24 Island hotel put up capital (5)Copies of The Meaning of Everything: The
Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon
Winchester, published by Oxford University Press,
will be awarded to the senders of the first three
correct entries opened on Wednesday October 30.
Entries marked Crossword 16,302 on the envelope,
should be sent to Weekend FT, 1 Friday Street,
London EC4M 9BT. Solution on November 2.Jotter padWINNERS
Crossword16,290: Liv Mckittrick, Isle of Skye, Scotland;
D Brooksbank, Norfolk; Mark Humble, Taunton, EnglandPolymath1,042: J. Harley, Stockton-on-Tees, EnglandBooks
B
ernardine Evaristo did not set
out to write a “state of Brit-
ain” novel. “I just wanted to
write a book that featured
lots of different black British
women and didn’t know quite how I was
going to do it or how it was going to turn
out,” she says.
Six years on, the resultGirl, Woman,
Other, a vivid and infectious account of
the lives of 12 mostly black, mostly
female characters whose paths criss-
cross through relationships, generations
and geography was named joint winner
of this year’s Booker prize for what the
judges called a “must-read about mod-
ern Britain”.
Their judgment makes Evaristo the
first black woman author to win the
prestigious prize, something which for
decades she felt was “unattainable”. It’s
a fact that prompts mixed feelings: hap-
piness and pride at being the first; sad-
ness that it has taken so long; and hope
that others will follow soon.
Catching up the morning after the
award ceremony — Evaristo has had
only a couple of hours sleep after cele-
brating in a Mayfair nightclub and a
relentless schedule of media appear-
ances (“My mouth has not stopped
moving”) — she reflects on the fate of
Girl, Woman, Other rom its origins tof
today. “During that period Black Lives
Matter happened and the #MeToo
movement happened and there was a
shift in national consciousness around
issues to do with race and gender,” she
says. People, issues and stories that were
previously marginalised or not heard
are now part of mainstream debate.
“I’ve broken through,” she says,
regarding the Booker win. Publishing
and the literary landscape more gener-social environment makes it a good time
to be a novelist. There is no shortage of
material. She cites the Booker prize
shortlist, which included Margaret
Atwood, Lucy Ellmann, Chigozie Obi-
oma, Salman Rushdie and Elif Shafak:
“We’re all tackling meaty issues... very
much engaging with the world and soci-
ety and politics and so on.”
She is less keen on talking about the
controversial decision by the Booker
judges this year to break with the rules
and award the prize jointly to her and
Margaret Atwood (forThe Testaments),
which some observers say had the effect
of diminishing the distinction of the first
award to a black woman. “I’m just
happy to have won it. It doesn’t matter
that it’s a co-win,” she says. “It’s great.”
The journey fromoutsider to the high
table of critical acclaim also features in
Girl, Woman, Other, which draws on
aspects of Evaristo’s own biography, in
particular the period in which she cut
her teeth in the world of radical lesbian
theatre in the 1980s. The temper of
those times — from squats in King’s
Cross to hard-left politics — is recalled in
the book. One of its main characters,
Amma, the performance of whose play,
The Last Amazons of Dahomey, bookends
the novel, bears similarities to Evaristo.
“I was very interested in the 1980s
because I was part of that,” she says. “I
was living in short-life housing, I was
working in theatre, I was very much a
feminist, I was living in a very woman-
centred world, set up a theatre company
— Theatre of Black Women — and we felt
like outsiders, went on demonstrations,
went to shows and heckled if I disagreed
with their politics.”
She says that while, like Amma, she
has since moved from the counter-cul-
ture to the mainstream, many of her
politics remain the same. “I still believe
in an egalitarian society and I still
believe in working towards making that
possible and in particular in focusing on
women of colour in my work.”
Yet the stage on which her politics
plays out has changed. She is professor
of creative writing at Brunel university
— at one point she breaks off from our
interview to alert colleagues that, given
all the Booker business, cover will be
required — and vice-chair of the Royal
Society of Literature. She is now “very
much part” of a “prestigious, ancient”
British institution — yet is determined
to open it up to voices that historically
have not been heard. “I work within the
establishment but I am not becoming an
establishment person. I’m not there to
endorse the status quo.”Frederick Studemann is the FT’s
literary editorFrom above:
Bernardine
Evaristo; and
with Booker
joint winner
Margaret
Atwood on
Monday at
The Guildhall
in London
Getty Images‘I’ve broken
through... ’
Interview Bernardine Evaristo talks to| Frederick
Studemannabout ‘fusion fiction’, giving voice to
black women and winning the 2019 Booker Prize
‘I am not becoming an
establishment person.
I’m not there to endorsethe status quo’
ally has not reflected all the communi-
ties in Britain, she argues. Black British
women in particular have long been
excluded, with publishers in the past
often content to publish works by Afri-
can-American or African writers. While
she too cherishes them, they do not tell
the whole story. “I feel a responsibility
to see our stories out there,” she says.
Evaristo was born in London in 1959,
the fourth of eight children to a British
mother and Nigerian father and grew up
in the capital. She published her first
book,Lara, in 1997 and is the author of
eight works of fiction and verse fiction
that play with form and style.
InGirl, Woman, Other he result is at
diverse cast of characters — the banker;
the school-teacher; the smart, gobby
student; the dramatist; the public intel-
lectual; the supermarket manager; the
cleaner; the matriarch and so on —
whose lives interconnect in a multitude
of ways, offering perspectives on BritainDespite South’s beautiful
hand, East-West were due a
positive score for this hand.
They did it the hard way...
Despite East’s repeated
attempts, West steadfastly
refused to bid. 5D should
probably make: the bidding
and distribution suggest that
both the trump and club
suits should be guessed
correctly. Instead, West
sought to defeat the contract
with some smart defence.
She began with K♥,
encouraged by East. Shenot want a club returned)
and East duly led a fourth
round of hearts. This
frustrates South
enormously. If she trumps
low, West over-ruffs with
her J♠; if South ruffs high,
West’s J♠ ecomes a naturalb
trump trick. Despite this
excellent defence, East-West
did not score well. Most
South players had
overcalled 4S and this was
defeated everywhere, by two
tricks where the defence
played correctly.BRIDGEPAUL MENDELSON
continued with 6♥ o East’st
A♥, and East returned 2♥
for West to ruff.
Should West now return adiamond or a club? West
correctly read East’s play of
2 ♥ —her lowest card in the
suit — as a Suit-preference
Signal, indicating that her
entry lay in the lower-
ranking suit: clubs. West led
10 ♣ o East’s At ♣ the high(
club suggesting that she didDealer: East N/S Game
North East South West
— 1H 1S NB
NB Dbl 2S NB
NB Dbl 3S10 5 4
J 4 33
Q 9 8 5 44ESNWA K 10
Q J 8
A
79 7 5 3 29 7 2
Q 8 7
JQ
A
K
A 6 3J 8 6
K 6
10 9 6 5 2
K 10 21994 Island of Abraham Peepal(
Tree Press)
Poetry collection, now out of print.1997 Lara ARP; expanded and(
revised version published by
Bloodaxe in 2009)
Evaristo’s first verse novel is based
on her family history, taking in
seven generations and travelling
between England, Nigeria, Ireland,
Germany and Brazil.2001 The Emperor’s Babe
(Penguin/Hamish Hamilton)
A verse novel set in Londinium,
211AD,The Emperor’s Babe
features Zuleika, the teenage bride
of a wealthy Roman who seeks
excitement elsewhere. Described by
one reviewer as “like an episode of
Sex and the City ritten by Ovid”.w2005 Soul Tourists Penguin/HH)(
An ambitious, experimental and
genre-mixing novel that follows
Stanley, a London banker and son
of Jamaican immigrants, on a global
road trip full of uncanny encounters
with historical figures.2008 Blonde Roots(Penguin/HH)
Evaristo’s first novel written fully in
prose reverses the roles of race in
slavery, with Africans as masters
and Europeans as slaves. Doris, a
blonde-haired, blued-eyed English
girl is shipped into slavery in Great
Ambossa. A funny, satirical work
with serious intent and impact,
longlisted for the Orange Prize.2010 Hello Mum Penguin)(
Novella narrated from a teenage
boy to his mother, after he finds
himself in trouble with a gang on
the London estate where they live.
Some 40,000 copies were
distributed in the UK, including a
copy for every school, and the book
was adapted as a BBC Radio 4 play.2013 Mr Loverman
(Penguin/Akashic Books US, 2014)
Evaristo’s novel tells the story of
Barry, a 74-year-old Antiguan
Londoner who has hidden his
homosexuality and his life-long
lover from his wife, family and
community, and who now confronts
the possibility of coming out.2019 Girl, Woman, Other
(Penguin/Hamish Hamilton)Bibliography
today that are both immediately recog-
nisable and fresh.
Their voices and the drive of the
novel are shaped by Evaristo’s stylistic
approach, what she calls “fusion fic-
tion”, which draws on her past works in
poetry. Free-flowing nd with “verya
few full stops”, the text and the story
run along energetically as the lives of
the characters are traced — from the
north of England to the City, from sepa-
ratist lesbian communities to the Nige-
rian delta.
While giving voice to black women,
Evaristo says she did not want race to be
“the overriding trope in the novel
because I am exploring all these
issues... gender and class and race and
cultural background and geographical
location.” It is, she says “quite a radical
book” but one that she hopes will “reach
into Middle England”.
She says that the current political andOCTOBER 19 2019 Section:Weekend Time: 10/201917/ - 18:11 User: andrew.higton Page Name:WKD11, Part,Page,Edition:WKD , 11, 1