Page 514 - Guildhall Coverage Book 2020-21

In Black Earth Rising

In the end Arabella and the drama achieve a form of resolution and inner peace that Coel seems
to have replicated in her own life. I interviewed her before Chewing Gum aired and again after I

May Destroy You had completed production and while life had clearly taken its toll on her in

that intervening time, the resilience and wisdom she carries were undeniable.

She is working on a new BBC drama series and in September will publish her first
book, Misfits: A Personal Manifesto, which the publisher Ebury says offers a guide to “how

speaking your truth and owning your differences can transform your life”.

“The thing to remember is I am here and I am good,” she told me just before I May Destroy

You aired. “It isn’t as though I have lived my life in determination for it not to conquer me, it’s
that I have learnt to conquer it.”