Newland played a part in proving that by co-editing the Penguin anthology of new black British writing, IC3. Writers now are increasingly less obliged to tackle race issues or even to write about black characters; there are verse novels and literary novels and popular fiction by black writers, and they are all being read and savoured. Doesn’t that imply a greater freedom and security for Newland, for experimentation as well as longevity?”As a writer, I feel secure, but not in my industry,” he reveals. “Because I feel that the opportunity to write what you want is growing slimmer.

The publishers are much more willing to promote a writer who tries hard not to ‘be black’ in their books, than a writer who writes about black people and communities without being ashamed of it. And that’s very scary.”Class division is something of a grievance for Newland. He’s a self-taught, self-made man who left school at 15 with two GCSEs. He complains of being treated “like an idiot” by other writers and misunderstood by publishing institutions.”There’s precious few black people from my kind of background in the publishing industry,” he says. “So there’s this lack of understanding of the work, and that will dictate what people will write. But if you’re publishing black writing, you owe it to the writers to see where they come from, to see what’s going on at street level. Come down and walk among us, man – we don’t bite!”He’s laughing now, stretched out on his belly and enjoying this new skin, the fear and the possibility of it.

The most striking quality about Newland is his alliance with fear He takes it all in his Nike Air stride. Whether Snakeskin soars or slides off the bookshelves, Courttia Newland has many more surprises up his sleeve.Courttia Newland: a biographyCourttia Newland was born in Hammersmith, west London, to a Jamaican-Barbadian family in 1973. Brought up in White City, he left school at 15 and pursued a career as a rapper before sitting down on his 21st birthday to write a novel. The Scholar, a tragedy set on a fictional west-London council estate, was published to acclaim three years later.