The people I never thanked for what they selflessly gave me in my career; when I was younger I just took it for granted.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 July 2020 source ↗
The question
Who deserves an apology from you, and for what?Originally asked
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Others on this question
View all 209 →I am mortified that we went into Afghanistan, promised to liberate the female population and, 20 years later, dumped them in a situation as bad, robbing girls of their futures.
Anne Enright
Novelist and short-story writer
I was not great with my mother-in-law, who was a very gentle woman. I thought she would be an uninvited part of my life for ever, but she died early and I wished I had been more open and patient.
To a resistant materials teacher at secondary school called Mr Noel. He had a comb-over and whenever he turned his back to write on the blackboard, we would roll up bits of paper and launch them at his head. Once, I hit him. I remember him turning around and looking crestfallen.
To my mother for disappointing her. Mummy wanted me to be a different sort of person from who I am, but one can’t change oneself.
More from Bernadine Evaristo
View profile →On a cosmetics production line. I walked out after half a day.
I cried after I won the Booker.
Disappear by Beyoncé.
A pair of Russell & Bromley boots with studs. I have had them for eight years and wear them all the time.
Travelling Europe with a friend, when I was 29. She was driving and the brakes went, on one of those vertiginous Italian mountains. It was terrifying for the 20 minutes it took to coast down the mountain.
When I met my husband, David, in 2006, on Dating Direct.
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