©Paul Crowther
Books by Kit de Waal
Kit de Waal, born to an Irish mother and Caribbean father, was brought up among
the Irish community of Birmingham in the 1960s and 1970s. Her debut novel My Name Is Leon was an international bestseller, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award for 2017. In 2022 it was adapted for television by the BBC. It is now on the GCSE curriculum for schools.
Her new novel The Best of Everything was released in April 2025.
“It’s the story of Dinah, age 17, who grew up in a commune. The novel opens very dramatically with a scene where Dinah is cutting off all of her hair, beautiful long curls that flow down her back. She’s running away from home in embarrassment and shame because she kissed her friend Queenie, who didn’t return her feelings. The narrative shape alternates between Dinah in her identity of who she was in the fellowship, and Ishmael, whom she wants to become when she cuts off her hair and runs away.” Read more...
Great Teen Reads from Ireland’s Great Reads Awards
Breege O'Brien, Librarian
“I thought a lot about how that was achieved in the writing. I think it’s to do with the real compassion in the way that it’s written, a kind of tenderness, almost, that you don’t often see sustained in fiction. I felt both moved and excited by it. Because at one level it seems like a straightforward novel, not particularly complex. But it achieves so much. It’s so humane. I think it is a very complex novel. Not many novels can do that.” Read more...
The Best Black British Writers
Jacqueline Roy, Novelist
“I thought it was really beautiful. It was talking about a subject that we don’t normally discuss. When somebody loses a baby, as the chaplain at my university says, we tend to use soft words spoken at a safe distance. And when you’re in grief, that’s not what you need.” Read more...
Sue Black, Medical Scientist
Interviews with Kit de Waal
The Best Novels: The 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction, recommended by Kit de Waal
The 2025 shortlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction features a family saga about formerly rich Iranian refugees, a surprisingly funny tale of ISIS brides and a “weird” midlife crisis adventure in suburban California. We asked the bestselling novelist—chair of this year’s judging panel—to talk us through the six finalists.
Interviews where books by Kit de Waal were recommended
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1
Unnatural Causes: The Life and Many Deaths of Britain's Top Forensic Pathologist
by Richard Shepherd -
2
Death, Dissection and the Destitute: The Politics of the Corpse in Pre-Victorian Britain
by Ruth Richardson -
3
The Trick to Time
by Kit de Waal -
4
The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy
by Rachel Joyce -
5
Waiting for the Last Bus: Reflections on Life and Death
by Richard Holloway
The best books on Death, recommended by Sue Black
The best books on Death, recommended by Sue Black
As one of the most distinguished forensic anthropologists and human anatomists in the world, Professor Dame Sue Black has spent her working life in close proximity to death. Here she discusses the history of corpses supplied to anatomy houses, the misleading nature of shows like CSI, and how she intends to keep on teaching after her own death: by bequeathing her body.
The Best Black British Writers, recommended by Jacqueline Roy
Black British writers have been storming the bestseller charts in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests. Here, Jacqueline Roy—the novelist and lecturer in Black literature—selects five of the best books by Black British writers that deserve more attention.
Great Teen Reads from Ireland’s Great Reads Awards, recommended by Breege O'Brien
Every year teenagers in Ireland show their enthusiasm for reading quality young adult fiction by voting for their favourite new Irish and international novels. Great Reads Award panellist Breege O’Brien highlights her top teen reads from recent years’ shortlists.
