The first book I wrote was The Bride Price which was a romantic book, but my husband burnt the book when he saw it. I was the typical African woman, I'd done this privately, I wanted him to look at it, approve it and he said he wouldn't read it.

I believe it is important to speak to your readers in person... to enable people to have a whole picture of me; I have to both write and speak. I view my role as writer and also as oral communicator.

Black women all over the world should re-unite and re-examine the way history has portrayed us.

As soon as I finish a book, I sell the paperback rights to different publishers and that's where I recoup my money.

I'm not just a feminist - I'm a feminist plus.

Men blackmailing you as a woman leads you to trivialise sex and say 'it's not important, what is important is myself as a person, no one owns me because of sex.'

In all my novels, I deal with the many problems and prejudices which exist for Black people in Britain today.