In this episode Gyles & Aphra Brandreth travel to Nigeria to meet Ben Okri. The Booker Prize winning author is a poet, novelist, essayist, short story writer, anthologist, aphorist, and playwright. Ben was born in Minna in the North of Nigeria before moving to England as a young child. Together with his family, aged 7 years old, he returned to Nigeria on the cusp of the civil war, something which was to have a defining impact on his life and work. Poems in this episode include Ibadan by J. P. Clark, I Anoint My Flesh by Wole Soyinka, Heavensgate For Georgette by Christopher Okibo and three of Ben Okri’s poems: An African Elegy; Finding the Present and And If You Should Leave Me. Brought to you from the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, this episode includes guest contributions from Shantall Agoreyo & Olawale Adediran - Masters students from the University of Chester who are part of our Commonwealth Poetry Podcast production team.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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