Audiobooks by Bernardine Evaristo

Bernardine Evaristo: A BBC Radio Collection: Including original writing for radio, plus full-cast adaptations of The Emperor’s Babe and Hello Mum

"Full-cast dramatisations and original plays and stories from the award-winning author. Bernardine Evaristo won the Booker Prize 2019 with her novel, Girl, Woman, Other and the one-off Women's Prize Outstanding Contribution Award in 2025. The author of ten books, her 2013 novel Mr Loverman was adapted into a BBC 1 drama series in 2024, winning two BAFTAS. She has received over 90 awards and honours and is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University of London. Featured here are some of her most innovative works, as well as an illuminating documentary about her life and career. The Emperor’s Babe – Set in AD 211, this drama adaptation of Evaristo’s 2001 verse novel, follows Zuleika, of Nubian heritage, who grows up wild and adventurous in Roman London and has a dangerous affair with the Roman emperor, Septimius Severus Hello Mum – Fourteen-year-old Jerome grows up on a rough housing estate and makes a mistake that has disastrous consequences. Now he needs his mother to understand why - and what the world looks like through his eyes. A powerful tale adapted from Evaristo’s 2010 novella Madam Bitterfly and the Stockwell Diva - Feisty South Londoner, Charmayne, is determined to make it big in Hollywood – no matter what it takes…A wickedly comical take on the hierarchy of colour, told in verse Medea – Mapping the Edge – Three writers: Amanda Dalton, Alison Fell and Evaristo, wrote three versions of the Medea myth featuring characters from Greece, Yemen and Yorkshire, which were integrated into a stunning and unique single drama. Originally staged as a promenade theatre production by Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, with WilsonWilson Company. Dalton adapted it for radio On Top of the World – A woman's feelings of alienation and isolation lead her to the frozen landscape of the beautiful Arctic London Choral Celestial Jazz – Bernardine Evaristo reads her own experimental verse short story, inspired by Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood, and featuring four very different Black women who navigate the high-octane, adrenaline-charged streets of contemporary London Profile: Bernardine Evaristo –A radio documentary about Bernardine Evaristo and her life Original Text copyright © Bernardine Evaristo 2001 (The Emperor’s Babe), 2003 (Madam Bitterfly and the Stockwell Diva), 2005 (On Top of the World), 2010 (Hello Mum), 2014 (London Choral Celestial Jazz), 2003 (Medea – Mapping the Edge) text copyright © Amanda Dalton, Alison Fell and Bernardine Evaristo Content Warning: contains strong language and deals with themes of racism Written by Bernardine Evaristo The Emperor’s Babe Zuleika – Michelle Asante Felix – Paul Chahidi Alba – Alex Tregear Valeria – Hannah Wood Tranio – Rick Warden Severus – Terence Anderson Hello Mum Jerome – Anthony Welsh Adrian/Boy – Damson Idris Kimisi – Nadine Marshall Delmar – Malachi Kirby Keith – Jude Akuwudike Dexter – Alex Lanipekun with Robert Blythe, Joe Sims Madam Bitterfly and the Stockwell Diva Charmayne – Petra Letang Sonia – Sharon Duncan-Brewster Hortense – Dona Croll Rhona – Stephanie Turner Keisha – Clare Perkins Principal – Martin Hyder Medea – Mapping the Edge Mildred – June Broughton Young Mildred – Tassia Messimeris Jamal – Sushil Chudasama Gerald – Martin Pirongs Nadia – Sara Powell Jason – Danny Seward Maddy – Lexi Strauss Texan – Deka Walmsley Narrator – David Fleeshman On Top of the World Read by Adjoa Andoh London Choral Celestial Jazz Read by Bernardine Evaristo Profile: Bernardine Evaristo © 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd"

Bernardine Evaristo (Author), Adjoa Andoh, Anthony Welsh, Bernardine Evaristo, Damson Idris, Full Cast, Joe Sims, Jude Akuwudike, June Broughton, Lexi Strauss, Michelle Asante, Nadine Marshall, Paul Chahidi, Petra Letan, Rick Warden, Sara Powell, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Tassia Messimeris (Narrator)

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Manifesto: A radically honest and inspirational memoir from the Booker Prize winning author of Girl, Woman, Other

"Brought to you by Penguin. RECIPIENT OF THE WOMEN’S PRIZE OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION AWARD The powerful, urgent manifesto on never giving up from Booker prize-winning trailblazer, Bernardine Evaristo Bernardine Evaristo's 2019 Booker win - the first by a Black woman - was a revolutionary moment both for British culture and for her. After three decades as a trailblazing writer, teacher and activist, she moved from the margins to centre stage, taking her place in the spotlight at last. Her journey was a long one, but she made it, and she made history. MANIFESTO is Bernardine Evaristo's intimate and inspirational, no-holds-barred account of how she did it, refusing to let any barriers stand in her way. She charts her creative rebellion against the mainstream and her life-long commitment to the imaginative exploration of 'untold' stories. And drawing deeply on her own experiences, she offers a vital contribution to current conversations around social issues such as race, class, feminism, sexuality and aging. This is a unique book about staying true to yourself and to your vision. It's about how to be unstoppable - in your craft, your work, your life. It is Bernardine Evaristo's manifesto for never giving up. 'Bernardine Evaristo is one of those writers who should be read by everyone, everywhere.' Elif Shafak 'Bernardine Evaristo is one of Britain's best writers, an iconic and unique voice, filled with warmth, subtlety and humanity. Exceptional' Nikesh Shukla 'Bernardine Evaristo is the most daring, imaginative and innovative of writers' Inua Ellams © Bernadine Evaristo 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021"

Bernardine Evaristo (Author), Bernardine Evaristo (Narrator)

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Soul Tourists: From the Booker prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other

"Brought to you by Penguin. RECIPIENT OF THE WOMEN’S PRIZE OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION AWARD Stanley Williams, angst-ridden banker and boffin, wonders whether there's more to life than his daily nine-to-five grind. One night he's dragged to a disco at Piccadilly Circus and there he meets Jessie: artiste, motormouth, ducker and diver. She swoops Stanley out of his soulless life and off on a rollercoaster road trip across Europe, bringing him face to face with a host of forgotten luminaries from the rich mix of black European history and literature. © Bernardine Evaristo 2006 (P) Penguin Audio 2020"

Bernardine Evaristo (Author), Bernardine Evaristo, Kayi Ushe, Vivienne Acheampong (Narrator)

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Blonde Roots: From the Booker prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other

"Brought to you by Penguin. FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER RECIPIENT OF THE WOMEN’S PRIZE OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION AWARD Welcome to a world turned upside down. One minute, Doris, from England, is playing hide-and-seek with her sisters in the fields behind their cottage. The next, someone puts a bag over her head and she ends up in the hold of a slave-ship sailing to the New World . . . In this fantastically imaginative inversion of the transatlantic slave trade - in which 'whytes' are enslaved by black people - Bernardine Evaristo has created a thought-provoking satire that is as accessible and readable as it is intelligent and insightful. Blonde Roots brings the shackles and cries of long-ago barbarity uncomfortably close and raises timely questions about the society of today. 'A bold and brilliant game of counterfactual history. Evaristo keep[s] her wit and anger at a spicy simmer throughout' Daily Telegraph 'So human and real. Re-imagines past and present with refreshing humour and intelligence' Guardian 'A brilliant satire whose flashes of comedy make the underlying tragedy all the more poignant' Scotland on Sunday LONGLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE FOR FICTION 2009 WINNER OF THE ORANGE YOUTH PANEL AWARD 2009 FINALIST FOR THE HURSTON WRIGHT LEGACY AWARD 2010 © Bernadine Evaristo 2008 (P) Penguin Audio 2020"

Bernardine Evaristo (Author), Ben Arogundade, Charlotte Beaumont (Narrator)

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The Emperor's Babe: From the Booker prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other

"Brought to you by Penguin. FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER RECIPIENT OF THE WOMEN’S PRIZE OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION AWARD WINNER OF THE NESTA FELLOWSHIP AWARD 2003 Londinium, AD 211. Zuleika is a modern girl living in an ancient world. She's a back-alley firecracker, a scruffy Nubian babe with tangled hair and bare feet - and she's just been married off a fat old Roman. Life as a teenage bride is no joke but Zeeks is a born survivor. She knows this city like the back of her hand: its slave girls and drag queens, its shining villas and rotting slums. She knows how to get by. Until one day she catches the eye of the most powerful man on earth, the Roman Emperor, and her trouble really starts... Silver-tongued and merry-eyed, this is a story in song and verse, a joyful mash-up of today and yesterday. Kaleidoscoping distant past and vivid present, The Emperor's Babe asks what it means to be a woman and to survive in this thrilling, brutal, breathless world. 'Wildly entertaining, deeply affecting' Ali Smith, author of How to be both and Autumn A coming-of-age tale to make the muses themselves roar with laughter and weep for pity -- sassy, razor-sharp and transformative -- from the acclaimed author of Mr Loverman © Bernadine Evaristo 2002 (P) Penguin 2020"

Bernardine Evaristo (Author), Sheila Atim (Narrator)

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Hello Mum: From the Booker prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other

"Brought to you by Penguin. RECIPIENT OF THE WOMEN’S PRIZE OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION AWARD It's a hot summer afternoon. Tension is in the air. A gang of youths on bikes gathers outside a chip shop. A teenage boy is stabbed and left bleeding on the street. The boy's motherwonders how this could have happened to her son. She is full of questions, but when the answers lie so close to home, are they really what she wants to hear? © Bernadine Evaristo 2010 (P) Penguin Audio 2020"

Bernardine Evaristo (Author), Malachi Kirby (Narrator)

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Girl, Woman, Other: WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019

"Brought to you by Penguin. ***WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019*** RECIPIENT OF THE WOMEN’S PRIZE OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION AWARD THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER This is Britain as you've never read it. This is Britain as it has never been told. From Newcastle to Cornwall, from the birth of the twentieth century to the teens of the twenty-first, Girl, Woman, Other follows a cast of twelve characters on their personal journeys through this country and the last hundred years. They're each looking for something - a shared past, an unexpected future, a place to call home, somewhere to fit in, a lover, a missed mother, a lost father, even just a touch of hope . . . 'Masterful . . . A choral love song to black womanhood in modern Great Britain' Elle 'Ambitious, flowing and all-encompassing, an offbeat narrative that'll leave your mind in an invigorated whirl... [It] unites poetry, social history, women's voices and beyond.' Stylist 'Bernardine Evaristo can take any story from any time and turn it into something vibrating with life' Ali Smith, author of How to be both 'Sparkling, inventive' Sunday Times 'Funny, sad, tender and true, deserves to win awards' Red 'Brims with vitality' Financial Times 'Exceptional. You have to order it right now' Stylist SHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 2019 © Bernardine Evaristo 2019 (P) Penguin Audio 2019"

Bernardine Evaristo (Author), Anna-Maria Nabirye (Narrator)

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Mr Loverman

"Barrington Jedidiah Walker is seventy-four and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he's lived in Hackney since the sixties. A flamboyant, wise-cracking local character, Barrington is a husband, father and grandfather - but he is also secretly lovers with his great childhood friend, Morris. When his marriage goes into meltdown, Barrington wants to divorce Carmel and live with Morris, but after a lifetime of fear and deception, will he manage to break away? 'Evaristo remains an undeniably bold and energetic writer, whose world view is anything but one-dimensional' SUNDAY TIMES on Blonde Roots"

Bernardine Evaristo (Author), James Goode (Narrator)

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Audiobooks by Bernardine Evaristo

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