74 • The Sunday Times Magazine
The bestselling author on midnight writing
and why it’s wrong to assume she’s Queenie
Candice Carty-Williams
A Life in the Day
C
arty-Williams, 32, was born,
grew up and still lives in
south London. After graduating
from the University of Sussex,
she worked in publishing before
her first novel, Queenie, came
out in 2019. It won book of the
year at the British Book awards,
making her the first black
author to win the accolade.
Last month she published her
first novel for young adults,
Empress & Aniya. She is
currently working on a new
book, a Channel 4 adaptation
of Queenie and an original drama
series, Champion, for BBC1.I usually get up at
about 10 because I go
to bed very late —
my best hours of operation are
between midnight and 3am. The
first thing I do is put on the radio
because I’ve just moved house and
I find it scary still, so I need noise.
I don’t eat breakfast but I make
tea with oat milk, then check my
emails on my phone because I’m
not ready for the laptop yet. ThenWORDS OF
WISDOMBEST ADVICE
I WAS GIVEN
“Don’t let anyone cross
your boundaries. It’s
bad for both of you
in the long run”ADVICE I’D GIVE
“Go to therapy.
Everyone needs to go
to therapy. It’ll change
your life, even if you
don’t think it will”WHAT I WISH
I’D KNOWN
“Nobody is as critical
as the voice in your
own head”I watch music videos to ease myself
into work. People say, “You must
be so busy,” and it’s, like, “I’m
sitting watching YouTube videos
on my telly.”
Twice a week I go to a gym in
Deptford that’s basically a hard-
man gym. I have this amazing
female trainer. We do plenty of
strength training, so it’s a lot of
dumbbells, a lot of me throwing
sandbags around. Which is fun
— especially if, like me, you don’t
have any other outlets for anger.
Then I’ll have a shower and eat.
I’ll have my first meal of the day
at 3pm: toast with butter and
Marmite or peanut butter. Food
is not my thing — eating is a fuel
thing rather than something I
really enjoy. When I’m anxious or
in a funny place, food is the first
thing to go. Every day around 4pm
about five of my friends are, like,
“Hi, have you eaten today?”
At 4 or 5 I’ll actually settle down
to do some work. I’m not the sort
of person who can do different
projects on the same day. I’m
writing so many characters all thetime, so I’ve had to put that rule
in place to make sure that no
character is blurring into another.
I do spend a lot of time thinking
about my characters. When I’m
driving I have brainwaves and I
have to pull over and write them
in my Notes app. I have my music
ear-splittingly loud because it
really helps me to think.
I’m quite an intense person —
an intense writer, definitely. My
brain knows when it should be
putting things on the page, and
that just isn’t all the time. Life is
really hard, and we have to be kind
to ourselves and be understanding
of ourselves and what we can do.
Everyone asks me, “Are you
Queenie?” and it’s so reductive
and so frustrating. You don’t ask
Ian McEwan if he was a soldier or
if he had premature ejaculation
issues! [Themes that are central
to the plots of Atonement and
On Chesil Beach.]
Writing a character, I have to
embody that person and think
how they think, talk how they
talk. I often say things out loud
and have arguments from the
perspective of different characters.
For Empress & Aniya I had to be
two 16-year-olds. Being 16 was not
a stretch for me because I am often
described as a sarky teenager.
If Queenie was a book about your
relationship with your mum, my
next book, People Person, is about
the relationship you have with
your dad and how affecting that
can be — or not. Some people
grow up without a dad and they’re,
like, “OK, cool,” but for others it’s
a void. I didn’t grow up with my
dad, but also I’ve always been
appalled by how the media talks
about single mums, particularly
when gang violence is linked to
growing up without a dad.
I’ll work solidly until 1am. I have
a kit next to me: water, chewing
gum and Burt’s Bees lip balm. It
means I don’t have to break
concentration. In that time I forget
even to use the bathroom.
After work I’ll have another
shower, then I get into bed and
watch TikToks. I might have a
snack, like cashew nuts or noodles.
I’ve got a bedtime routine and
that is filling up my water bottle,
putting the security alarm on, then
running up the stairs because
I’m scared something is going to
come up after me. I am- It’s fine, everyone
has their fear n
Interview by Emily Dixon EMILE HUSEYNZADE