View Reviews of books by Patrice Lawrence

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Patrice Lawrence

Patrice Lawrence was born in Brighton and brought up in an Italian-Trinidadian household in Mid Sussex. This meant great holidays and even better food. She found her way to east London in the 1990s and has acquired a cat called Stormageddon.

Patrice worked for more than 20 years for charities supporting equality and social justice. These themes (along with a serious amount of music – her ideal mixtape includes drum 'n' bass, Bruce Springsteen and Studio Ghibli soundtracks) inform her stories and music can't help creeping into her books.

Her first book for young adults, Orangeboy, won the Bookseller YA Prize and Waterstone’s Prize for Older Children's Fiction.

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Interviewed 13 March 2021

Ten words to sum up your working life to date ...

Cheque-sorter, chips-profferer, civil servant, call centre, charity, crime.

Nine things you can see from where you're sitting ...

Cushion with a stylised Debbie Harry design
Vase of wilting sunflowers
Discarded question mark and exclamation mark earrings
Collection of photos of my daughter charting her impressive hair through the years
Notebook with a dog on the cover that looks like Dr Spock
A Bobblehead T’Challa
A Paperchase discount voucher
Rustling trees
The sea

Eight minutes to prepare a meal. What's it going to be ?

Nigella’s lemon, mushroom, garlic and thyme linguine. Eight minutes for the prep plus a bit extra to make sure your pasta isn’t crunchy.

Seven people you'd like to go for a drink with ...

Roberto Fonseca, as long as he brings his piano
bell hooks
Christopher Eccleston
Grace Johns
Tom Robinson
Mary Seacole
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Six things you can't live without ...

Coconut water
Black eyeliner
My best friend Lucy
Orange-flavour Clubs
Rivers of London audiobooks
Bruce Springsteen

Five favourite words ...

Shite
Tool
Absolutely
Stormageddon
Gorgeous

Four places you'd run away to ...

Venice
Hong Kong
The rose garden in Regent’s Park
Laputa

Three books you've bought recently ...

Amanda Lees – From Aconite to the Zodiac Killer: A Dictionary of Crime (Robinson, pre-order)
Maame Blue – Bad Love (Jacaranda Books)
Ainissa Ramirez – The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another (MIT Press)

Two things that make you rant ...

People who don’t say ‘thank you’ when you swerve off the pavement into the oncoming traffic to let them pass.

The way John Torode pronounces ‘pasta’ on Masterchef. (And don’t get me started on ‘tagliatelle’ and raviolo/ravioli.)

One thing you'd tell your teenage self ...

Girl, remember that time you accidentally ended up with white stripy hair because you and Lucy were watching INXS videos and you forgot how long you’d left the bleach on? You should have made detailed notes because when you’re older, you could have put it in a book.