The List

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You can also use the external lift near the Artists' Entrance on Southbank Centre Square to reach Mandela Walk, Level 2. I’d always wanted to write about whisper networks and anonymous online lists that made allegations of abuse, basically since 2017. That was when I first saw one – there were several different lists at that time that came out concurrently and affected different industries, from journalism to music. As a feminist, I was like, this is amazing and important and people are speaking truth to power. It means women can get their stories out there and protect other women, in a way that HR and the legal system often hasn’t when it comes to abuse in the workplace. Then, on the other hand, being a journalist – I used to work at Channel 4 News, so there are regulations and you’re very cautious of liability and you need the facts before you can report on something. So, I always felt really conflicted and uneasy about those lists. I thought I’d write a long read on it at first, but the issue felt a bit fraught. About a year later, I thought I’d write a play, but that didn’t really work. Then, I thought maybe if the story around it was fictionalised, it would create more fruitful conversations. There’s so much that went into this novel that might not have gone into a non-fiction piece. Once you knew what form it would take, how difficult was the writing process? I have a friend and we both used to say that our biggest fear was being turned into memes, but now, it’s being cancelled. I thought, I’m afraid of this because I’m a public-facing writer, but now we’re all public-facing figures in a way. And in trying to be consistent, I’m quite unlike Ola—I’m unapologetically an inconsistent person. For example, I’m Nigerian and from the Yoruba tribe, and culturally, men in the Yoruba community tend to pay for things instead of women. I love that [ laughs]. I’ve never tried to frame it as a feminist practice, because it’s not. It’s like trying to put a feminist slant on misogynistic elements of hip-hop. I’m like, it is just misogynistic, but it’s okay that you still like it. That’s not to say we should embrace hypocrisy, but we should embrace being flawed people. At the moment, I feel like we’re sleepwalking into this incredibly severe mental health crisis. Michael also spends so much of the book surrounded by incels and befriending other people on the list that are clearly abusers that the reader loses any interest in uncovering if he has actually done the things he is accused of having done...

It began as a crowdsourced collection of names and somehow morphed into an anonymous account posting allegations on social media. I’m sure those leading roles will be really sought-after. I saw that Sheila Atim and Arinzé Kene are narrating the audiobook? The early-stage development project joins other A24 projects for the BBC including an adaptation of Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain and This is England creator Shane Meadows‘ The Gallows Pole, which is being made with Normal People indie Element Pictures and Big Arty. The premise of this felt really interesting to me, so I was disappointed when it personally just did not live up to the hype.Laughing, Michael pulled her face toward him. He looked at her, taking her in for a moment with his eyes dopily half closed, and kissed her forehead. Ola Olajide, a high-profile journalist, is marrying the love of her life in one month’s time. Young, beautiful, successful – she and her fiancé Michael seem to have it all. Ola Olajide, a high-profile journalist at Womxxxn magazine, is marrying the love of her life in one month's time. There was a time when every industry had its own list [of alleged sexual abusers and predators] circulating, right? Music, film, media. I’ve seen names on lists where I’ve gone: ‘Gosh, I’ve heard about this before.’ And then there are others where your kneejerk is: ‘Oh. OH.’ I remember seeing one particular allegation and then later some information coming out that really complicated things.”

So, once you’d finished the book, what was it like to see it become the subject of this intense bidding war? Mowbray, Nicole (11 July 2018). "The women with Slaying power: Publishing sensations Elizabeth Uviebinené and Yomi Adegoke". Metro Newspaper UK . Retrieved 10 November 2018. That is, until one morning when they both wake up to the same message: ‘Oh my god, have you seen The List?’ First let me say, I did speed through reading this novel because I just HAD to know if what was on The List was true.Ola Olajide, a celebrated journalist at Womxxxn magazine, is set to marry the love of her life in one month’s time. Young, beautiful, and successful—she and her fiancé Michael are considered the “couple goals” of their social network and seem to have it all. That is, until one morning when they both wake up to the same message: “Oh my god, have you seen The List?”

No one needs a defense of the bad perpetrators, especially when the victims rarely receive any justice. Yomi Adegoke is a multi-award-winning journalist and author. She is currently a columnist at The Guardian and British Vogue and is the former host of the Women's Fiction Prize podcast. I’d written the first nine chapters [of the book] before I had my first meeting with HBO,” she explains, talking me through the secretive process she underwent for months before she was allowed to tell anyone. “I thought the storyline really had TV potential, so I talked to Hayley [her agent] about it.” From ambiguous faux pas to unequivocally abysmal transgressions, we’ve all sat in the peanut gallery, casting aspersions on those who have let us and others down, or callously abused their power, or in some cases, those we couldn’t wait to see take a fall.Sitting across from me at a small round table, glass in one hand and phone in the other, she is a force of personality – charming, chatty, a whirlwind of laughter and hustle – so I don’t mind when it becomes clear that we’re only going to get through about five of my questions in the time she has. Or when she’s straining so hard not to answer directly that she runs us both around a loop of half-thoughts and non sequiturs until I agree that, yes, yes I do know what she means.