Bernardine Evaristo: ‘I’ve gone from being a raging ranter in my 20s to a radical reasoner in my 60s’

The Booker-winning author on the impact of Audre Lorde’s essays, being entranced by Dylan Thomas, and finding her poetic voice with Derek Walcott My earliest reading memory I loved the novel Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, which I read when I was about nine. It was the only book I owned for many years as we couldn’t afford them. I relied on Woolwich library, but sadly the books had to be returned. I think Ballet Shoes spoke to me because it was about three sisters who felt like outsiders, and who lived in a large, eccentric home full of people, including boarders. Likewise, I grew up feeling like an outsider in a large eccentric house with eight children and two parents, as well as boarders– at one stage a family of 13 from Goa stayed with us – in the two attic rooms. My favourite book growing up Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, which I read at 14, when I was cast as Captain Cat in the annual play at my girls’ school. I relished playing the ancient Welsh sea captain and was entranced by the poetic language, humour and huge range of characters who inhabit the seaside town of Llareggub. Originally written as a radio drama, the play became an early inspiration for my own writing many years later.