I Want to Talk to You

A pleasure and an invigoration – Alex Clark * Guardian *
Evans’s nonfiction marries that faith in the value of subjective experience to a fierce intellect; the result is a fascinating overview not only of a writer’s evolution but of the shifts in our understanding of art as…”activism and community” – Stephanie Merritt * Observer *
Perceptive and empathetic… This was always going to be a book that grabs you by the lapels and insists on you listening but all the same, you do emerge impressed and better informed – and also kind of windswept and happy – Sue Gaisford * Financial Times *
There is a depth and integrity to Diana Evans’s writing; every piece feels beautifully sewn together and complete – BERNARDINE EVARISTO
Thoughtfully layered pieces… deeply personal – Megan Conner * Red *
Luminously questioning, always intelligent and unafraid of confronting the impact others can have on us – ORE AGBAJE-WILLIAMS, author of The Three of Us
An intimate and moving meditation on the mysteries of writing and the pleasures of reading. Elegant in tone and finely wrought in form, it is a deeply insightful, and also profoundly enjoyable, collection – EKOW ESHUN, author of The Strangers
A celebration of a career that has been anything but ordinary and an intellectual mind forever evolving. A blueprint for all of us straddling between fiction and journalism, who want to create meaningful, transcendent work – CHARLIE BRINKHURST-CUFF, editor of Mother Country
[A] compelling collection of essays… an insightful examination of both the cultural and deeply personal events that have influenced the making of a great writer * Financial Times, Summer Reads of 2025 *
One of our most outstanding writers * Bernardine Evaristo *

Diana Evans is the author of the novels 26a, The Wonder, Ordinary People and A House for Alice. She was the inaugural winner of the Orange Award for New Writers for 26a, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel, the Guardian First Book, the Commonwealth Best First Book and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Ordinary People won the 2019 South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Rathbones Folio Prize, the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, for which A House for Alice was also a finalist. A former dancer, she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, her journalism and nonfiction appearing in Time magazine, the Guardian, Vogue and the Financial Times among others. She lives in London.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.