Malorie Blackman with Nihal Arthanayake
Ask Penguin
Penguin Books UK
4.1 • 550 Ratings
🗓️ 30 November 2022
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on the Penguin Podcast, Nihal is joined by Malorie Blackman, author of the critically acclaimed and internationally renowned Noughts and Crosses series.
She joins us to talk about her new memoir, Just Sayin': My Life In Words.
Malorie also discusses her approach to, and the challenges of writing a memoir, having a positive attitude toward failure, how institutional racism affects health care, her experience of being asked for a ticket at her own event, and the importance of writing your truth.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Brought to you by Penguin. |
| 0:12.9 | Hello and welcome to the Penguin podcast where we talk to writers about writing. |
| 0:20.1 | I'm Nihal Arthanaika and today I'm speaking to an |
| 0:22.5 | extraordinary writer whose output spans more than 70 books, among them the best-selling series, |
| 0:28.5 | Nauts and Crosses and Pig Heart Boy, which looks at the personal and societal challenges |
| 0:33.5 | at the cutting edge of science. She's a former children's laureate and received an OBE in 2008 for her |
| 0:40.0 | services to children's literature. Her work has been adapted for stage and screen, including a BBC |
| 0:46.0 | adaptation of Nolts and Crosses, which involved a collaboration with Jay-Z, his company Rock Nation, |
| 0:51.9 | produced the soundtrack. Her latest book, which we're talking about |
| 0:55.1 | today, is an autobiography, which is funny, frank, and full of life lessons. She is, of course, |
| 1:01.7 | an incredible storyteller, an inspirational figure, and I'm so pleased to be able to talk to, |
| 1:08.1 | not for the first time, I'm happy to say, Mallory Blackman. |
| 1:11.6 | Welcome to the Penguin podcast, Mallory. |
| 1:13.6 | Hi, Nihal. How are you? |
| 1:15.5 | Good. It's lovely to see you. |
| 1:19.0 | When embarking on this, if there was trepidation, |
| 1:24.4 | where do you think that trepidation was coming from? |
| 1:28.2 | I think there was definitely trepidation |
| 1:31.9 | and I think it was coming from the fact that it wasn't me |
| 1:35.6 | kind of hiding behind characters that I created |
| 1:39.0 | because it was all about me. |
| 1:42.0 | So it's very exposing, if you like. But at the same time, |
... |
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