Born in Minna, Nigeria, Ben Okri, 67, spent his childhood in Nigeria and London. He published his first novel Flowers and Shadows in 1980 and won the Booker prize in 1991 with The Famished Road. His subsequent work includes Astonishing the Gods, which in 2019 was selected as one of the BBC’s 100 novels “that shaped our world”. In 2023, he was knighted for services to literature. His latest novel, Waking the Warriors, is published on 16 July. He lives with his partner and their child in London.When were you happiest?On a train journey to Arcadia many years ago while making a TV documentary.What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?Worrying at things.What is the trait you most deplore in others?Coldness.Aside from a property, what’s the most expensive thing you’ve bought?A Dalí painting.What is your most treasured possession?A photograph of my mum and dad.Describe yourself in three wordsAlchemy. Love. Resilience.What would your superpower be?Enlightenment.What makes you unhappy?The killing of children, environmental indifference, injustice.If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose?Universal respect for the Earth.What is your most unappealing habit?
Ben Okri: ‘What happens when we die? We don’t die. We change realms’
The Booker prize-winning novelist on the art of lying for a living, the cosmic force of love, and gargling loudly
451 words~2 min read
