When Candice Carty-Williams published her debut novel Queenie in 2019, its reception was nothing short of an author’s dream. Pulling off the rarest of feats in the literary world, it became both instantly popular – the people’s book of the moment – but also critically acclaimed: Carty-Williams went on to win Book of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2020 (the first book by a Black author ever to win the prize), propelling her to stardom and cementing her name in British publishing history.
So it came as a surprise to no one that, after selling more than a quarter of a million copies in the UK alone, Queenie was quickly snapped up by networks for a highly-anticipated TV adaptation. Carty-Williams herself has been heavily involved in the show’s production, writing some of the episodes along with authors including Natasha Brown (Assembly) and the eight-part series stays faithful to the book – at times even word-perfectly.
