Best books… Caryl Phillips
The award-winning author and playwright picks his six favourite books about colonial life. His latest novel, A View of the Empire at Sunset, explores the life of Jean Rhys and is published by Vintage at £8.99
In the Shadow of a Saint
by Ken Wiwa, 2000 (Black Swan £9.99). In 1995, Wiwa’s father, the writer and activist Ken Saro-wiwa, was executed by the Nigerian military regime for his opposition to the exploitation of his country by an oil company in tandem with a corrupt government. A lyrical and moving evocation by SaroWiwa’s son of growing up between Nigeria and England.
The Poetry of Derek Walcott 1948-2013,
2014 (Faber £30). Published three years before his death, this big volume is a testament to the love and compassion Walcott felt for the colonial world that inspired him across the breadth of his extraordinary career.
The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon, 1956 (Penguin £8.99). Perhaps the greatest book about migration to Britain written in the 20th century. Selvon’s fiction traces the arrival and adventures of a group of West Indians after WWII, and is by turns hilarious, heartbreaking and, ultimately, disturbing.
Letters Between a Father and Son
by V.S. Naipaul, 1999 (Picador £12.99). A collection of letters between the young V.S. Naipaul, studying in England, and his anxious father, back in Trinidad, who had sacrificed much so that his son might travel to the colonial centre to be educated. Their correspondence helps illuminate the life of this often complex writer.
Another Day of Life by Ryszard Kapuscinski, 1976 (Penguin £8.99). The great Polish writer’s compelling account of the three months he spent stranded in a rundown hotel in Luanda during the Angolan Civil War.
Running in the Family
by Michael Ondaatje, 1982 (Bloomsbury £9.99). The author returns to the Sri Lanka of his childhood to try to uncover his family history. The prose is as lush as the landscape; the discoveries predictably unsettling and profound.
Titles in print are available from The Week Bookshop on 020-3176 3835. For out-of-print books visit biblio.co.uk