Photo copyright: Caleb Azumah Nelson
BOLU BABALOLA
Agent: Juliet Pickering
Assistant: Finlay Charlesworth
Bolu Babalola is currently not accepting proofs, review copies or books from publishers.
Please note that Bolu is represented for screenwriting by Jessica Stewart of Independent Talent, who also handles all book-to-film rights.
Biography: Bolu Babalola is a writer of books, TV and press, a cultural commentator, and author of the Substack newsletter Juice, who writes stories of dynamic women with distinct voices who love and are loved audaciously. Her short story collection, LOVE IN COLOUR, was published in 2020, became a Times bestseller and was shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year. Her debut novel, HONEY AND SPICE, was published in July 2022, was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick and won the inaugural TikTok Award for Book of the Year. The sequel, SWEET HEAT, was published in Summer 2025.
Her culture writing can be read in NYMag, Bustle, Vogue and Paper Magazine, among other publications.
Bolu’s pilot episode of BIG AGE, which she created, wrote and executive produced, was broadcast on Channel 4 in autumn 2021.
Visit Bolu’s website.
Follow Bolu on Instagram.
SWEET HEAT
Fiction, 496 pages
Headline/William Morrow, 2025
Not every relationship makes it out of university.
But Kiki and Malakai were supposed to be forever.
Everything was perfect, until it all went up in flames.
Three years after their epic break-up, Kiki's worked hard to forget her first love. But just as she thinks she's got her life under control - jumping into the distractions of her romance-by-calendar-invite boyfriend, and plans for her best friend, Aminah's, wedding - Kiki's career implodes, the family business teeters on collapse, and Malakai returns . . .
As Malakai takes up his role as Best Man opposite her Maid of Honour, suddenly Kiki can think of nothing else: their simmering chemistry, what went wrong, and why it is now impossible to act normal around each other.
Juggling a new job, the prospect of her parents' restaurant being sold, and keeping her best friend from going full bridezilla, dealing with The Ex is the last thing she needs. But somehow the spark between them is only getting hotter - and threatening to ruin everything.
They just have to get through the wedding, so why does it feel like playing with fire?
HONEY & SPICE
Fiction, 448 pages
Headline, 2022
The sharp-tongued (and secretly soft-hearted) Kiki Banjo is an expert in relationship-evasion, and likes to keep her feelings close to her chest. As the host of the popular student radio show, Brown Sugar, it is her mission to make sure the women who make up the Afro-Caribbean Society at Whitewell University also do not fall into the mess of 'situationships', players and heartbreak.
But when Kiki meets the distressingly handsome and charming newcomer Malakai Korede - who she has publicly denounced as 'The Wasteman of Whitewell' - her defences are weakened and her heart is compromised. A clash embroils them in a fake relationship to salvage both their reputations and save their futures, and soon she finds herself in danger of falling for the very man she warned her girls about.
A funny and sparkling debut, HONEY & SPICE is full of delicious tension and romantic intrigue that will make you weak at the knees.
LOVE IN COLOUR
Fiction, 201 pages
Headline, 2020
Bolu Babalola finds the most beautiful love stories from history and mythology and rewrites them with incredible new detail and vivacity in this debut collection. Focusing on the magical folktales of West Africa, Babalola also reimagines iconic Greek myths, ancient legends from the Middle East, and stories from countries that no longer exist in our world.
A high-born Nigerian goddess feels beaten down and unappreciated by her gregarious lover and longs to be truly seen.
A young businesswoman attempts to make a great leap in her company, and an even greater one in her love life.
A powerful Ghanaian spokeswoman is forced to decide whether to uphold her family's politics, or to be true to her heart.
Whether captured in the passion of love at first sight, or realising that self-love takes precedent over the latter, the characters in these vibrant stories try to navigate this most complex human emotion and understand why it holds them hostage.
Moving exhilaratingly across perspectives, continents and genres, from the historic to the vividly current, LOVE IN COLOUR is a celebration of romance in all of its forms.