Yvvette Edwards

Yvvette Edwards has lived in London all her life. She currently resides in the East End and is married with three children. A Cupboard Full of Coats, her first novel, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

“The day I met my agent was the day I also discovered there was not a single white character in my book. When it was pointed out to me, I have to confess I was shocked. While my agent continued talking about how much she had enjoyed reading my novel, I smiled and carried out a silent urgent inventory of my characters. To my shock, I discovered she was right. There was not the one. It was, for me, one of those bizarre surreal moments that as a writer, I encounter far more frequently perhaps than is normal. How was it possible for someone who had grown up in London, who had written a novel based in London, about a group of Londoners no less, that something so significant could have passed me by completely? The answer, I felt, lay in the process by which the novel had come about.”
—Read more at The Author At Foyles.