Founding editor of Quartz Africa and the current editor for strategic initiatives at Rest of World, Yinka Adegoke, believes strongly in ideas: ‘A competent writer with a great idea will often end up with a great story while a great writer with a decent idea will end up with a good story—at best.’
First Draft is our interview column, featuring authors and other prominent figures on books, reading, and writing.
Our questions are italicized.
What books or kinds of books did you read growing up?
I read a wide range of children's books in my much younger years from the Terrance Dicks novel adaptations of the TV series, Doctor Who, to the post-war Enid Blyton staples. In my early teens, I started dipping into my dad’s books and I remember reading Alex Haley’s Roots years after the original TV series had aired. But a lot of what I read back then was what one might loosely call ‘airport novels’; so lots of Robert Ludlum (Bourne Identity), Arthur Hailey (Hotel and Airport) and Len Deighton (The IPCRESS File). In school, I was introduced to Charles Dickens and Shakespeare but importantly, also to Chinua Achebe and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o.
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