As writers, we can spend a lot of time looking back, searching the past for some way to predict the future. Which might explain the recent explosion of historical fiction novels being published in the UK.

As Black women writers specifically, it’s easy to consider the mere act of writing ourselves into stories set in the past, as a revolutionary one. Our contributions to present day Britain have been so consistently downplayed, that it stands to reason we might turn to literature to help rewrite our stories and centre Black female protagonists in historical settings we were previously told we never existed in.

But how are authors bucking the trend of the Bridgerton-esque story – something popularised that the publishing industry seeks to replicate in tone and success – to tell bigger, deeper stories of Black women’s lives using historical fiction?