Trailblazing writer, lecturer, environmental activist, and winner of the Costa Book of the Year for The Mermaid of Black Conch, Monique Roffey talks to author Jacqueline Crooks about her new novel Passiontide, set on a fictional Caribbean island. A young female steel-pan player is found dead after the island's carnival, leading four women to ignite revolution and fearlessly challenge the impossibilities and dangers of being a woman in a rigged system.

Monique Roffey is a Trinidadian-born British writer, lecturer and activist. She is the author of eight novels, including The Mermaid of Black Conch, The White Woman on the Green Bicycle; Archipelaogo; The Tryst; Sun Dog; and House of Ashes.

Jacqueline Crooks's debut novel Fire Rush was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, Jhalak Prize, Paul Torday Memorial Prize and Author's Club Best First Novel Award. It was also chosen as an Observer Best Debut Novel of the Year. For her short stories, she has been nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, Wasafiri New Writing Prize and BBC National Short Story Award.