Episode 19: Liberating change

Dean Atta and Sam Baker

16 September 2020

This week’s episode features Dean Atta and Sam Baker, two authors who have recently moved to Scotland, and whose very different books are united in looking at the potentially liberating possibilities of change in our lives.

Dean Atta was named as one of the most influential LGBT people in the UK by the Independent on Sunday and his debut novel The Black Flamingo was awarded the 2020 Stonewall Book Award. Told through verse, it is a bold coming of age story which follows a mixed-race gay teen as he begins to accept his identity.

Sam Baker is a journalist, broadcaster, and author, as well as the former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan and Red. She shares her experiences of life post 40 in her new book The Shift — showing how women are creating their own story, taking a leaf out of the millennial handbook and reinventing things their way.