Loves of My Life: Susan Wokoma


The best interviews are often the most personal. In Loves of My Life, we get to know the person behind their craft, asking them the important questions we’re desperate to know—the restaurants and date-night spots, what’s in their Saved folder on Instagram, the piece of jewellery they’re most attached to and what’s lurking at the bottom of their handbag. In short, these are the true loves of their life. Next up is actress, writer and director Susan Wokoma.

What’s your number one restaurant to visit in the world, and what do you order?

In the world? That is big. I know my London one, it’s easy. Andrew Edmunds in Soho. I’m a bit of a Soho creature, and I’m still fighting for central London—although I know everyone’s going east. It’s a beautiful, modern European restaurant in an 18th century townhouse—candle lit, everything. I was introduced to it by a writer, playwright Polly Stenham in maybe, 2000? She’s a real Soho child and we went for dinner there and the service was amazing, the menus are all handwritten and change regularly. It’s the place I go for a big steak or a pork chop, or for the red wine selection. If I really like you, I take you there.

Is there anything in your wardrobe that you’re particularly sentimental about?

Do you know what? I’m really bad with losing things. I’m that kind of person who will wake up on a random Tuesday and be like, where’s that top? So one of my 2024 resolutions has been to declutter my life, but one thing I’m very, very sentimental about is what I bought with my first big paycheck for a job I did called Crazyhead in 2016. I didn’t know what to spend it on and my friend Emma Dennis Edwards was like, “you need to get your first Chanel.” I wanted the classic, black flap bag, and she was so sweet and called the New Bond Street store ahead of time so that when we got there they made such a fuss of me, giving us champagne. They let us stay in the store all day. Ultimately, it was a real lesson about buying quality because whenever I use it it’s still in pristine condition, and it was a really sentimental moment with a friend.

(Image credit: Who What Wear; Dave Benett/Getty Images; Yellowbelly; @susiewoosie12; BBC)

What would we always find lurking in the bottom of your handbag?