Malorie Blackman

Tarkoituksena, että tyypillinen tyypilä pitäisi olla valkoinen, haluan soittaa siitä. Ja se, että rikas tyypilä pitäisi olla valkoinen. Ja minä olen tehnyt sen täysin toisella tavalla. Esimerkiksi yksi hieman, jossa nort-tyypilä on syönyt, ja hänellä on rauhassa plasteri. Ja Seffi sanoo, että se plasteri todella tuntuu hyvin. Ja hän sanoo, että he eivät tekevät rauhassa plasteria, vaan vain rauhassa.

Ja se oli semmoinen hieman rauhallinen asia, jota olin laittanut sinne. Ja taas vastaus siihen on ollut melko huomattavaa, koska ihmiset sanoivat, että en tunne, että plasterit ovat punaisia. Ja minä ajattelin, että plasterit ovat suunniteltuja, jotka tekevät kattoja paremmin. Mutta jos olet vanha, ne sopivat. Katto on itse asiassa paremmin parempi kuin plasterit. Joten se on semmoinen asia, jota monimuotoisuus näkee, jota monimuotoisuus ei todennäköisesti näe, jota haluaisin soittaa.

start by really thanking you so much for your service to young readers um am i right that you've now like published 70 books for young people yes i have my autobiography just saying was the 70th so i think it actually was the 71st but who's counting you know but they're not all novels i hasten to write some are like picture books and early readers and so on but yeah

When the book came out, it was a very slow burn.

And I think a lot of its momentum happened via word of mouth.

Oh, really?

Yes, and saying, oh, read this book, read this book.

And what I've had when I've been doing book signings and things is I've had parents tell me that their children insisted that they read it.

And because the first one came out so long ago, I've had parents say to me, I read this as a teen, so I've given it to my teen to read.

And I think, wow, that's amazing.

Makes me feel really old, but that's amazing.

Well, basically, Noughts and Crosses is about the friendship and eventual star-crossed love between Callum, who's a Nought,

and Sefi, who's a cross, in a world where they're told that noughts and crosses shouldn't really mix.

And the story takes place throughout their teenage years.

And, you know, it's sort of like my homage to Romeo and Juliet.

It's sort of like he was inspired by that.

And I just...

I kind of felt like I had written 49 books and I was still being criticized in some quarters for not writing overtly about racism.

And it was sort of, Mallory, why aren't you writing about racism?

Which really used to work my nerves because I thought, is that what you think I'm only qualified to write about as a black writer?