The life advice edition with Monique Roffey
"Find what you really love and make sure you have lots of that in your life"
Good morning from my latest dog and cat sit in Shoreham,
I hope this email finds you well. This week, I’ve got a special life advice edition from the fabulous Trinidadian-British author Monique Roffey, whose latest novel Passiontide is just out. This evening, Monique will be in conversation with Yvonne Battle-Felton at Foyles Charing Cross Road if you’re able to make it.
Monique is the author of seven novels and a memoir. The Mermaid of Black Conch won the Costa Book of the Year and the Costa Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Goldsmiths Prize. Her other highly acclaimed books include Archipelago, which won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, The White Woman on the Green Bicycle and House of Ashes. In addition to her work as an environmental activist, she is a professor of contemporary fiction at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Monique has kindly found time in her packed schedule to answer my life advice questions, the format of which was devised for my 2021 podcast series Life, Oh Life. Here goes.
What’s the best advice anyone’s ever given you?
Saying nothing is very powerful.
If you could go back and give yourself some advice to yourself at a certain point in your life, when would you go back to and what would you tell yourself?
Yes, my advice would be to SAY NOTHING. I’ve been attacked in my life once or twice, publicly and in those days I knew little about how social media works and tried to fight back online. I would definitely say to that younger Monique, “say nothing” and “do nothing”. Haters will hate and to leave them alone .
What's your best life advice for other people?
“Follow your bliss”. Mythographer Joseph Campbell said that and he was right. It’s deeply spiritual advice. Find what you really love and make sure you have lots of that in your life and as a result, life will be good.
What inspired your latest novel and what would you say to anyone thinking of reading it?
A true crime inspired this novel, or probably two crimes, the deaths of Asami Nagakiya in 2016 Trinidad and Sarah Everard in the UK in 2022. This is a novel about a feminist uprising and about the crime of femicide. Both women were ‘only walking home’ and were murdered. 80,000 women are murdered each year, globally; twice the number of the killings in Gaza, and yet this number is unnoticed. Women are killed and no one seems to care or see it as an act of terror.
So I wrote a novel about this.
Read it if you care.
Thank you for your time and wisdom Monique.
Worth Reading
Passiontide by Monique Roffey review – a passionate protest novel | The Guardian
More Life Advice
Sarah Weiler - “Trust the feeling of aliveness”
Rosie Wilby - "When things feel tough, reach out to other people"
Samantha Baines - "Just go for it"
Selina Barker - “There’s a real power in owning what you want”
Corinne Peacock - "Stop trying to live someone else’s life or by someone else’s rules."
Bernadette Russell - “Be kind, Be curious, Find the joy.”
Giles Paley - Phillips - "Reach out, listen, encourage and be kind."
If you enjoyed reading The Uplift, please press the little heart just below and feel free to share your best life advice in the comments, or forward this email to a friend.
Speak to you soon,
BB x