Adewale Maja-Pearce

Adewale Maje-Pearce (born 1953) is an Anglo-Nigerian writer, journalist and literary critic, who is best known for his documentary essays. He is the author of several books, including the memoirs In My Father's Country (1987), The House My Father Built (2014), several other non-fiction titles, and a collection of short stories entitled Loyalties and Other Stories (1986). Quotes There were no fictional bits. Everything happened as I wrote it. Indeed, I had to downplay some of the more outrageous antics of the characters, particularly the now late Prince, who started off as a God-send while I was battling the recalcitrant tenants before turning into a nuisance himself, and at one point hiring assassins, which landed him in Ikoyi prison. I don’t think it is possible for me to say, for the simple reason that I am too close to it; only time will give us that perspective, and by then, we won’t be around. I think we could do with far less of critical literature. But I have no strong feelings about this comparison. I would say particular books, poems, essays and short stories. I dislike the modern veneration of the writer qua writer as distinct from their work. The first book that opened me up to the magic of language was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis, which I read when I was seven. Six decades later, I still remember where I was sitting in my bedroom overlooking the lagoon at the bottom of the garden and not wanting it to finish. Go for it, but then I have been enormously lucky. The point is not to be afraid of pursuing your dreams. They are all we really have; they are who we are. Life is pointless otherwise. In My Father’s Country was the first part of a trilogy. The House My Father built was the second. I jokingly tell people that the third one, which I haven’t written yet, will be ‘A Farewell to My Father’s Country’! Adewale Maje-Pearce works The house my father built A peculiar tragedy In my father's country How many miles to Babylon From khaki to agbara External links Category:Living people Category:1953 births