Chinua Achebe to publish after 20 years
1st October 2009
Chinua Achebe has revealed he will return to writing after spending 20 years away from the pen.
The writer, who is widely regarded as the grandfather of modern African literature, will release a collection of essays entitled The Education of a British-Protected Child later this month.
In an interview with Reuters, the 78-year-old commented on his lack of output over the past two decades, explaining: 'You might say why have I not written 50 books? I write with caution. Less speed and more caution.'
The author also revealed why only a few of the essays in the new collection deal with his personal life by saying it is more important to talk about issues which concern everyone rather than himself.
Achebe rose to fame more than 50 years ago when he wrote Things Fall Apart, a book which told the story of British colonialism from an African perspective for the first time.
He told the news agency that he wrote the novel because 'the story of my people was not the story of those African romances, the books written by British adventurers'.
The author also wrote Anthills of the Savannah and A Man of the People and is currently a professor at Bard College in New York.