“I just think that he’s written some of the best characters ever made,” Akala tells me. The Dark Lady is a combination of everything we’ve come to celebrate the writer for: an almost encyclopaedic grasp of history, his profound storytelling ability, and, with The Hip-Hop Shakespeare Company, setting the Bard’s works to a modern beat. While a challenge to create, the new novel isn’t entirely new territory for Akala. “I’ve tried to condense the entire 1590s into one summer.” Writing his latest novel, The Dark Lady, he says was “extremely difficult” but “incredibly satisfying”. “I don’t think there’s any way of overstating how important that is.” Following on from his bestselling nonfiction, Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire, the BAFTA and MOBO award-winning artist, writer, and social entrepreneur has made his first foray into Young Adult fiction. “Books played such an important role in my life growing up,” reflects Akala over Zoom.
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