Return and the work of atonement

Kae Tempest is widely regarded as one of Britain’s greatest wordsmiths. In a career of ferocious creativity, he has received multiple prizes and critical recognition across the many forms he works in.

Beginning as a lyricist and songwriter in his teens, Tempest threw himself fully into whichever discipline he could find work in; gigging as a poet, writing for the theatre or busking with his band. A decade later, this obsessive compulsion to push his writing as far and as hard as he could, secured him a record deal with UK independent label Big Dada and a poetry publishing contract with Picador.

Tempest’s work has always sought to pull the focus between the global or national concerns of a character, and the private, very intimate experiences of their lives; the minuscule and the mundane peering out from behind the incomprehensibly large and overpowering. Whether it’s austerity, addiction, communal disassociation, the planet in crises, or the death of our prevailing myths, the bigger picture is always made up of tiny parts.

We were joined by Tempest live on stage at St George's, Bristol as he discussed his much anticipated return to fiction. His first novel in a decade, Having Spent Life Seeking is the story of Rothko Taylor, who returns to their hometown of Edgecliff, seeking a place to belong after fifteen years in the wilderness. It weaves together themes that have shaped Tempest’s work to date: family and forgiveness; redemption and atonement; desire and abandon; selfhood and community. Themes that are dealt with in this new novel, with a deeper resolve and a new clarity of intent.

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