Kit de WAAL; ‘Without Warning and Only Sometimes’

KIT de WAAL; ‘WITHOUT WARNING AND ONLY SOMETIMES’

WITHOUT WARNING AND ONLY SOMETIMES is a story of an extraordinary childhood and how a girl who grew up in house where the Bible was the only book on offer went on to discover a love of reading that inspires her to this day.

Kit de Waal is the author of the novels MY NAME IS LEON, which was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year and THE TRICK TO TIME, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and a short story collection, SUPPORTING CAST. She is also editor of the COMMON PEOPLE anthology, and co-founder of the Big Book Weekend festival. MY NAME IS LEON is being adapted as a one-hour film for BBC1, directed by Lenny Henry.

 Kit de Waal was born in Birmingham to an Irish mother, who was a childminder and foster carer and a Caribbean father. She worked for fifteen years in criminal and family law, was a magistrate for several years and sits on adoption panels. She used to advise Social Services on the care of foster children, and has written training manuals on adoption, foster care and judge craft for members of the judiciary.

She will be in conversation with Sarah LeFanu.