I am sitting in bed next to Mariah Carey. She’s wearing a pair of tiny boxer shorts and a belly-airing vest. ‘You can lie down if you want,’ she says. ‘I mean it’s fine, be comfortable.’ So I lean further back into the pillows, feigning being comfortable. As a young magazine intern, Diana Evans was catapulted overnight into the role of culture editor, and so began her career as a journalist, writing about musicians, dancers & artists, interviewing the likes of Viola Davis, Alice Walker and Edward Enninful. In these portraits of contemporary icons, the author herself remains distant, always the observer. Alongside them, in essays and pieces collected here for the first time, we see her turning the lens on herself. We watch as she dances across stages in London and travels through Cuba. We sit beside her desk as she develops her voice as a writer, shaped by her love for Jean Rhys, James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. We walk by her side as she navigates the world, her family and the midlife sandwich, reflections on fashion, yoga, the British monarchy and lockdowns, and the lasting impact of George Floyd and Grenfell. Crafted over twenty-five years, with the intelligence and sensitivity for which Diana Evans is celebrated, I Want to Talk to You invites you into a conversation about literature, art, identity, and everything in between.
