Rather a sweet memoir of growing up as the headmaster’s son in colonial Nigeria before and during the second world war. I liked it more than Chinua Achebe; there seemed to me to be more interrogation of political and gender power structures – one memorable scene has Soyinka’s mother yelling her rage down the phone at the local British official at the Allies for bombing the (non-white) Japanese rather than the (white) Germans. The other point that grabbed me was the lip-smacking portrayal of Nigerian cuisine. I would like to know more about West Africa in general, and I guess Nigeria is the way into it as the regional power; and I guess that Soyinka is one of the better ways into Nigeria.
I had no idea that the Lovejoy series was based on books! And I’ve seen them all, most more than once.