Draft:Victoria Princewill FRSA

Victoria Princewill FRSA (born 1990) is an English novelist. Born and raised in England, she is of Kalabari Nigerian descent. She studied English Language and Literature at Keble College, Oxford University. She is the author of In the Palace of Flowers, and The Diary of Sarah Forbes Bonetta: A Novel. She writes historical fiction. She has a Master's in Philosophy from UCL and is doing another Master's in Neuroscience at King's College London.

Her second and latest novel, The Diary of Sarah Forbes Bonetta: A Novel, is a coming-of-age Young Adult novel, published by Scholastic, inspired by the extraordinary story of the real-life Sarah Forbes Bonetta, the multilingual African princess turned orphan who was transported to England and raised as a ward of Queen Victoria. The novel was Highly Commended for the Young Quills Award 2024 and has been longlisted for the Diverse Books Award 2024. Her debut novel, In the Palace of Flowers, was published by Cassava Republic Press.

Set in the Qajar court of Iran in 1894, In the Palace of Flowers is a work of historical literary fiction, inspired by one of the only available first-person accounts of a black woman enslaved there. Princewill tells the story of the lesser known Trans-Saharan slave trade, a contradictory experience where the enslaved were educated; they were concubines and eunuchs with access to wealth and power. Educated but not empowered, the novel follows Jamila and Abimelech, two Abyssinians, pursuing lives of meaning whilst navigating the deadly politics in the opulent if sinister Persian court, amidst rising nationalism, just over a decade before the Persian Constitutional Revolution.

In the Palace of Flowers was named Top 5 Books of 2021 by Times' Radio by Mariella Frostrup , Best Books of 2021 by African Arguments, the Royal African Society's online magazine & was specially Recommended by Harvard.

Paul Spalding-Mulcock, reviewing it in The Yorkshire Times, declared, "Victoria Princewill’s debut [...] a compelling example of historical fiction at its finest" adding that "her prose is a thing of measured, elegant beauty."

Samira Sawlani, Al-jazeera journalist and co-founder of the Bare Lit Festival said “Through beautiful prose the hugely gifted Victoria Princewill transports us to another time and world, telling a story which has one wholly absorbed. Love, danger, politics, history and art, In The Palace of Flowers is a sweepingly stunning tale that has it all.”

Minna Salami praised her "captivating storytelling skills and impressive historical knowledge" describing the book as "an awe-inspiring, dynamic and powerful novel about a part of African history that few other writers have told". Calling the book "restorative" and "illuminating", she wrote that it "gripp[ed] the reader’s mind with vivid and seductive language". Writing about it for Electric Literature, Megan Benard called it a 'deeply moving and beautiful account of a woman trying to find the freedom she's always lacked' and included In the Palace of Flowers in her 11 books about misunderstood women in history.

Aincre Evans, a scholar of African feminist theory and a DPhil candidate at Oxford, listed In the Palace of Flowers as one of their 5 must-read African Feminist Books, referring to "Princewill [as having] weave[d] a beautiful plot of politics, love, resistance, and history into being."

On her impetus for writing In the Palace of Flowers, Princewill has said

"She [Jamila] had written a letter that detailed her existence but only really her ancestry, her status as an enslaved woman in Iran and the men between whom she was sold. Hers was the only readily available story and the mere fact that it had survived when there was a concerted effort to erase the history of Abyssinians in Iran made me determined to do justice to what I took to be her own perseverance and to give her the humanity she had been denied."

Her second novel, The Diary of Sarah Forbes Bonetta: A Novel, published by Scholastic, was Highly Commended for the Young Quills Award 2024, for Historical Fiction of the Year. The Young Quills Award is for Young Adult novels and the Historical Association forms the shortlist from reviews by young readers. Of The Diary of Sarah Forbes Bonetta: A Novel a young reader wrote, '"Overall, this book has made me realise that I have a voice, and that I should use it. It has made me feel a sense of empowerment of knowing my self worth and boundaries. It has changed me as a person; for the better."' Emily Bearn, reviewing The Diary of Sarah Forbes Bonetta in The Daily Telegraph, called it "highly engaging", noting that, "Victoria Princewill skilfully reimagines her story". Giving it 4/5 stars, she added that "[Princewill]'s real skill is to create a convincing Victorian heroine to whose emotional highs and lows any modern reader will relate."

The Diary of Sarah Forbes Bonetta: A Novel was longlisted by Diverse Book Awards 2024.

Princewill's essay for Granta, 'What's in a name?' explored through British Vogue's revelation that 'Thandie' Newton, the British actress, was actually called Thandiwe Newton how naming works as a social experience, writing about her own family name. "Our names, and selves, function, first, in social spaces, as reflections echoed back to us." It was named Best of the Literary Internet by LitHub.

She has written for n+1 mag, the Guardian, the LRB and others.

Publications

(2021) In the Palace of Flowers. Publisher: Cassava Republic Press ISBN: 9781911115755 (2023) The Diary of Sarah Forbes Bonetta: A Novel. Publisher: Scholastic ; ISBN: 9780702311482