As we sit in the chilly autumn air we discuss that fact that Courttia’s books have been publicised as ’black British’ literature, he looks at the people walking up and down the street, sipping on his coffee in an attempt to keep warm. The area where he grew up contains many diverse cultural experiences, Jamaican, Spanish, Moroccan, Rastafarian, "We live in a multicultural society, my stories draw on lots of experiences, experiences which contain black, white, multicultural influences. My books should be accepted universally, marketed universally, and should be able to appeal to all kinds of audiences." 

The White City and Ladbroke Grove areas have been Courttias playground all of his life and he has used these experiences for the settings of his first two books, books that shout ’street life’, ’street culture’, ’street style’. A style taken by many critics to be the trademark of his writing, "’the street’ will always be an element in my writing, it is not something that will ever go away, it has made me what I am. As you move and progress, there are elements of your past that you take with you and things that you leave behind," Courttia casually waves his arms towards the direction of Portobello, "it’s all around you no matter where you are or who you are, it is a way of communicating with people."

Courttia’s subject and focus has received a range of publicity, critics have described him as being ’so hot he’s in danger of becoming fashionable’ whilst also accusing him of giving blacks a bad name. Courttia laughs at this, "they [the critics] don’t know how to deal with me, some don’t agree with my subject matter, I am writing about experiences that they don’t want to touch on." he has written about crack, drug dealing, rape and violence, "things that actually happen, these are issues that people don’t want to deal with." 

He is fed up of ’things being watered down’, of people playing things safe. "You get penalised for being honest, for telling the truth." Courttia is writing about issues that he believes are ’real’, "People should be given things that are ’alive’."

All this publicity and personal attention would shout success to a lot of people, but this is not the case with Courttia, "Success for me will be when people know the names of my books, when people approach me in the street to talk about my writing." With the publication of his third novel, Courttia will undoubtedly become more well known throughout Britain, which means more interviews and publicity, more personal profiles and more photos, the thought of becoming a celebrity may make Courttia cringe but he already appears to be a local celebrity no matter how he sees it.

Roifield Brown & Sian Pickles

and buy Courttia’s novels on our Books page.
Find out about Courttia’s work with The Post Office Theatre.

interviewed by Roifield Brown written by Sian Pickles