Writing about Africa by Africans has been part of my literary apprenticeship, standing alongside works by authors such as Joseph Conrad, Joyce Cary and Graham Greene as influences. Giles Foden More Quotes by Giles Foden More Quotes From Giles Foden Detective fiction could not have existed without Edgar Allan Poe. Giles Foden allan-poe detectives fiction From 1971 to 1993 my family lived in a number of African countries, including Malawi, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Nigeria, as well as Uganda itself. Giles Foden uganda numbers country An important book for our times, in which one woman's determination and refusal to consent sets an example of courage and honesty. Giles Foden honesty determination book It's the swirling river of time that makes our identities, not the monochromatic simplicity of skin colour or the definitive lines of international borders. Giles Foden river skin simplicity time My father worked in agriculture, and I got to travel round remote rural areas with him and see a bit of the landscape and people. Giles Foden agriculture father people travel My father was an agricultural economist. In 1989 he was posted to Mbarara, a small town on the Uganda-Rwanda border. Giles Foden border small small-town father To realise belatedly that there are Swahili epic poems which rival their European equivalents for sweep and power has been exciting. Giles Foden which been epic power I grew up in the African bush in Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda, which is my thing. I love the smell of the dust as you bump along in a Land-Rover. I go back there often. Giles Foden back go you love I can't think of a specific meal, but my favourite country for food has got to be France. I love those restaurants in the middle of the village squares. Giles Foden think village food love In Kenya, crime and terrorism are deeply linked, not least by the failure of successive Kenyan governments to control either. Giles Foden control terrorism crime failure Ordinary Kenyans rightly want to be able to shop safely, and there is a long history of them doing just that, irrespective of their religion or that of the shop owner. Giles Foden doing long history religion You can gesture at the transnational problem of Islamist terrorism all you like, but it's just hot air unless you invest in proper security on the ground in your own country, with the right safeguards to civil liberties. Giles Foden you terrorism problem hot The search for inventive ways of telling the tale of Christ's birth has been going on a long time; in a way, difference was there from the start with Luke and Matthew. Giles Foden long-time time long way In any culture, if information is to maximise in a contextual space, and new meanings be born, the original story has to have substance - there's gotta be gold in them thar hills. Giles Foden new space gold culture Suffering produces a recursion to the tribe, to one's own kind. When a lot of people suffer, tribes lose their head. Giles Foden lose own suffering people The forgiveness that comes of patient interpretation seems impossible when those nearest to your heart are threatened. Giles Foden your forgiveness impossible heart Foreign students add cultural value to their British peers, who need an international outlook. Giles Foden value need who students I spent my childhood tinkering with electronic circuits, on breadboards, as they used to be called, in particular making radio transmitters. Giles Foden electronic childhood radio used At school, I got into the whole CB thing, hiding a transceiver in my study-bedroom with which I'd make appointments to meet girls in town. I wasn't good enough at physics to take it much further than fun, but I suppose there was a need to communicate. Giles Foden meet good fun school Since its beginnings, American writing has been in dialogue with other literatures. Giles Foden american been dialogue writing
