Sequins for a Ragged Hem

Sequins is a powerful and unusual book, in that it combines the familiar traveller’s tales with an account of another kind of journey and process of discovery, as Johnson confronts the ‘ghost who was haunting herself’ in order that she might come to terms with her sense of a fragmented identity * Guardian *
Euphoric and infused with the pulsing bassline of calypso … a revelatory discovery of the shattering yet necessary inheritance of colonialism * Wasafiri *

Amryl Johnson (Author)

Amryl Johnson was a poet, author and performer born in Trinidad. She was brought up by her grandparents until the age of 11, when she moved to Britain to join her parents. She attended secondary school in London and went on to study British, African and Caribbean literature at the University of Kent. She taught at the University of Warwick. Johnson’s work was included in several anthologies, including News for Babylon- The Chatto Book of Westindian-British Poetry, Let It Be Told- Essays by Black Women in Britain, Watchers & Seekers- Creative Writing by Black Women in Britain, The New British Poetry and Daughters of Africa.

Bernardine Evaristo (Introducer)

Bernardine Evaristo, MBE, is the award-winning author of eight books of fiction and verse fiction that explore aspects of the African diaspora. Her novel Girl, Woman, Other made her the first black woman to win the Booker Prize in 2019, as well winning the Fiction Book of the Year Award at the British Book Awards in 2020, where she also won Author of the Year, and the Indie Book Award. She also became the first woman of colour and black British writer to reach No.1 in the UK paperback fiction chart in 2020. In 2025 she was awarded the Women’s Prize Outstanding Contribution Award. Her other awards and honours include an MBE in 2009 and an OBE in 2020. Her writing spans reviews, essays, drama and radio, and she has edited and guest-edited national publications, including The Sunday Time’s Style magazine. Bernardine is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University, London, and President of the Royal Society of Literature. She lives in London with her husband.

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