BEN OKRI

I was 16 in 1975, living in Lagos. The Nigerian civil war had been ended for five years and we were all dealing with the aftermath. I had finished secondary school about two years before and was preparing for my A-Levels. I did a lot of reading. I read the Russians and the French, Maupassant and Chekhov, as well as Ibsen and Somerset Maugham, Jane Austen and the Brontës. I had discovered a lot of Penguin Classics in dusty bookshops. I had developed an interest in eastern philosophy – Zen Buddhism – and in art. I was painting a bit at the time but I kept that quiet.

My dad was a big influence on my formative thinking. He became a lawyer for the poor. We had had some financial difficulties and had to move from the elite part of Lagos to a poorer part. Our