The BBC’s Noughts & Crosses adaptation is set to air later this year, with young actors Masali Baduza and Jack Rowan starring as ‘cross’ Sephy Hadley and ‘nought’ Callum McGregor. Sephy is black, the privileged daughter of a prominent politician. Callum is white, and – like many noughts – experiences brutal discrimination and lack of opportunity as a result of his race and class. The script is being overseen by Being Human creator and writer Toby Whitehouse, with Jay-Z’s company Roc Nation co-producing the series. And on 21 March, it was announced that rapper Stormzy has also joined the show’s cast as newspaper editor Kolawale.

But the BBC TV series isn’t the only exciting Noughts & Crosses news on the horizon. Blackman is also working on a fifth novel in the series, inspired by Brexit, Donald Trump and the rise of the far-right across Europe. (To date, the Noughts & Crosses series has sold more than 1.7 million copies in the UK and around the world.) Called Crossfire, the novel will pick up several years after the end of the last book in the series, Double Cross.