Earlier this month the writer Alex Wheatle died. Known as “the Brixton Bard”, Wheatle began writing after serving a prison sentence following the Brixton riots in 1981. His time inside turned him onto writers such as CLR James and James Baldwin. Before that, he grew up on comics such as the Beano and Whizzer and Chips. His first novel, Brixton Rock, was published by BlackAmber Books in 1999, and he was picked up by Fourth Estate, before turning to Young Adult fiction where he made his reputation. He won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize in 2016 for Crongton Knights, with a television adaptation coming this year. His life story was featured as part of the BBC series Small Axe, directed by Steve McQueen.

During the pandemic, I was on the same panel as him at the launch of the Rethinking ‘Diversity’ in Publishing report, organised by Words of Colour. I knew a little of Wheatle as he had been featured on The Bookseller’s YA Book Prize shortlist, and I’d read Crongton Knights as part of that. During the conversation, Wheatle directed a question to me. Would The Bookseller pledge to feature a Black writer on the front cover of the magazine “maybe every few months”? It was a modest ask but, given the lack of representation on publishers’ lists, an important one. That was almost five years ago, but I still think about it. There was something about the matter-of-factness of the request that has stayed with me. Wheatle was asking The Bookseller to step up, and his death made me question whether we had.

This is not about special favours – Wheatle was clear, he wanted the work judged on merit

So I ran the numbers. Since 2022, of the 300 (or so) author profiles we have run, 57 have been of Black writers, including Liv Little, Benjamin Dean, Mike Gayle, Diana Evans, Femi Fadugba, Paterson Joseph, Ray Shell, Kalynn Bayron, Jade LB, the Milk Honey Bees, Natasha Brown and, yes, even Alex. To Wheatle’s point though, not all have been cover stars – but many have been, including Evans, Fadugba, Gayle, Joseph and, most recently, Brown. By the way, for those who now knock such things, this is not about special favours – Wheatle was clear, the work should be judged on merit.

Rethinking ‘Diversity’ in Publishing called for a fundamental shift in the publishing of writers of colour, from acquisitions to campaigns. It asked the industry to knock down the barriers that were preventing the successful and sustained publishing of such writers. It landed in the summer of 2020, making it timely and urgent, and helped provide the context for what ought to have been a step-change in how publishers (and the book trade) supported these authors.

The Bookseller’s annual Black Issue, alongside imprints such as Dialogue Books, the June Sarpong-led Akan Books, Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Monument Books, and #Merky Books point to publishers’ ongoing work, as well as more widely the Jhalak Prize, Lit in Colour and The Black Writers’ Guild. But right now there is also concern of a regression, as voiced at The Bookseller’s Children’s Conference and backed up by the most recent report into representation in children’s books by CLPE. I’d like to say that the industry reaction to this retreat was immediate, but at the end of last year our audience was more exercised by an editor’s ranking than it was by the downturn in diverse publishing.

Of course, we all have things that trigger us – some more important than others. For me, the pledge Alex asked of The Bookseller back in 2020 is one of the important ones.