The Dancing Face

Mike Phillips was born in Guyana, but grew up in London. He worked for the BBC as a journalist and broadcaster on television programmes including The Late Show and Omnibus, before becoming a lecturer in media studies at the University of Westminster. He has written many critically-acclaimed crime novels, including Blood Rights, which was adapted for BBC television, The Late Candidate, winner of the Crime Writers' Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction, Point of Darkness, An Image to Die For, A Shadow of Myself and Kind of Union. He co-wrote Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain to accompany the BBC television series, and an essay collection, London Crossings: A Biography of Black Britain (2001). Appointed the first Cross Cultural Curator for the Tate Galleries in 2005, Mike also wrote for the Guardian, and his public service includes trusteeships of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, and the Heritage Lottery Fund. Most recently, he served as an independent adviser to Inspector of Constabulary Wendy Williams' Windrush; Lessons Learned Review for the Home Office.

Bernardine Evaristo, MBE, is the award-winning author of eight books of fiction and verse fiction that explore aspects of the African diaspora. Her novel Girl, Woman, Other made her the first black woman to win the Booker Prize in 2019, as well winning the Fiction Book of the Year Award at the British Book Awards in 2020, where she also won Author of the Year, and the Indie Book Award. She also became the first woman of colour and black British writer to reach No.1 in the UK paperback fiction chart in 2020. Her writing spans reviews, essays, drama and radio, and she has edited and guest-edited national publications, including The Sunday Time's Style magazine. Her other awards and honours include an MBE in 2009. Bernardine is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University, London, and President of the Royal Society of Literature. She lives in London with

The Dancing Face has the page-turning quality of all good crime novels . . . The characters in The Dancing Face, as well as the relationships that link them, are extremely well fleshed-out . . . The ability to expose the many different aspects of political issues in a digestible way is one of the beauties of fiction, and Phillips makes use of it masterfully in The Dancing Face Bad Form