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RENOWNED British author Bernardine Evaristo dug into her own family history for her latest novel, Lara. Centering on the life of the eponymous Lara – a mixed race girl raised in a white suburb of London in the 1960s and ‘70s – the book travels back over 150 years and three continents of Lara’s ancestry.

Famed for her critically acclaimed novel Blonde Roots, Evaristo has received numerous literary awards, including the Orange Prize Youth Award and the Arts Council Writers Award. She tells Davina Morris about her latest effort.

To what extent is Lara based on your own childhood?

A lot of it is very true to my own childhood experience of growing up mixed-race in London in the ‘60s and ‘70s. My home town is Woolwich, which was then very white, and I went to school in Eltham, which was even whiter. I cannot believe how African Woolwich is these days but all those years ago it was another story. I wanted to write about what it was like to grow up in such an environment. My father was Nigerian, but he didn’t pass on his Yoruba culture to us so I didn’t identify with that part of my heritage. My mother is English and this was the culture I knew and understood but I didn’t fit in to English society because I looked different. So the section in Lara about my childhood explores these issues. Lara, the character in the book, is based on myself, and when she gets older she decides to explore her father’s culture and ends up visiting Nigeria, as I did.

Did you discover anything new about your history in penning this novel?

Oh God, yes. My father was Nigerian but his father and grandfather came over from Brazil and were part of the movement of freed Brazilian slaves to the west coast of Africa from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. This is why my surname is Evaristo rather than a Yoruba name. My mother is English but she also has Irish and German ancestry. I interviewed both my parents at length when I was researching the novel and learnt so much about their marriage in the 1950s and how much opposition they faced. A black man marrying a white woman was such a taboo thing to do. By the end of the writing process I felt very connected to all sides of my family history.

Do you think society has changed greatly over the years, in terms of how we view interracial relationships?

The difference between then and now is enormous. In the big cities in the UK, interracial relationships are everywhere. It is a much more accepted part of our British culture. We see mixed-couple and families on television programmes, in advertising and in films. That’s not to say that we’re now living in a multi-racial utopia, but it is worth remembering that time has mellowed the opposition. When my parents married my mother’s side of the family went apoplectic, especially my grandmother, who never really got over her daughter marrying a black man.

Do you consider yourself black or mixed race?

I am black and within being black I am mixed-race. Of course we humans are all one race, originating in Africa, some darker or lighter than others. But in the world we live, each of us is allocated our racial definitions and I’m happy to go along with them. Lara is a real exploration of a mixed-race identity. My novel The Emperor’s Babe is about a black girl growing up in Roman London nearly 2000 years ago. In Blonde Roots I turn history on its head and create a world where Africans enslave Europeans. All my books reveal a preoccupation with Africa and its relationship to Europe and I guess the seeds of this can be found in my own DNA.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

Read well and widely, learn your craft and remember it takes time. Don’t be impatient to publish before you’re ready, be self-motivated, self-disciplined, give 100 per cent, be thick-skinned, resourceful, get informed readers to give you honest feedback on your writing and never, ever give up hope.

Lara is out now through Bloodaxe Books

Published: 02 November 2009
Issue: 1396

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