Penguin have launched a new landmark series of lost or hard-to-find books, now rediscovered, by Black writers who wrote about Black Britain and the diaspora across the last century. The series has been created and introduced by Booker Prize winner Bernadine Evaristo. The series are all to be published on the 4th February, featuring cover artwork by outstanding Black British artists. Here, we review Nicola Williams’ astonishing legal thriller – Without Prejudice – ahead of the release. You can pre-order a copy of the book here.
This Thursday sees the launch of Penguin’s new landmark series, re-publishing a series of six novels by Black writers, writing about Black Britain and the diaspora across the last century. Introduced by Booker Prize winner, Bernadine Evaristo, the series as Evaristo states aims, ‘to correct historic bias in British publishing and bring a wealth of loot writing back into circulation. While many of us continue to lobby for the publishing industry to become more inclusive and representative of our society, this project looks back to the past in order to resurrect texts that will help reconfigure black British literary history… My aim is to present a body of work that illustrates a variety of preoccupations and genres that offer important and diverse black British perspectives.’ Nicola Williams’ heart-stopping legal thriller – Without Prejudice – is amongst this series, simultaneously an account of what it’s like to be a black female lawyer in Britain and a cut-throat indictment of the legal system itself and privilege in various forms, Williams’ novel twists and turns with eye-watering pace, weaving a story that is as relevant now as it was two decades ago.
The novel tells the story of Lee Mitchell, a thirty-year old barrister from a working-class Caribbean background who takes on ‘the’ case of her career, a high-profile case defending notorious millionaire playboy Clive Omartian who has been arrested alongside his father and brother for fraud. As the case unfolds, Mitchell sees herself being drawn into this world of corruption and fear that begins to hit too close to home. The story is interlaced with that of her new friendship with Simone – an old-school classmate – who is dealing with her own trauma amidst the demise of her marriage. Ultimately though, this story is more about the struggles of a black woman trying to make her voice heard in the white-dominated world of the British courtroom and legal system and Williams delivers with excruciating and raw accuracy, the biases that Mitchell has to handle on a day-to-day basis – near the start of the novel Mitchell is mistakenly identified as the client rather than the lawyer. Given that Williams herself is a lawyer, she is able to fill the novel with realistic and crafty detail both about her experience and about the legal system that truly bring the work to life. Without Prejudice is a phenomenal, layered and whip-smart work and it is a crime that it has been left almost forgotten for nearly decades, Penguin and Evaristo have re-discovered magic here.
