Biyi Bandele – författare

A few months ago fourteen-year-old Ali Banana was apprenticed to a whip-wielding blacksmith in his rural hometown. Now its winter 1944, the war is entering its most crucial stage and Ali is a private in Thunder Brigade. His unit has been given orders to go behind enemy lines and wreak havoc. But the Burmese jungle is a mud-riven, treacherous place, riddled with Japanese snipers, insanity and disease. Burma Boy is a horrific, vividly realised account of the madness, the sacrifice and the dark humour of the Second World War's most vicious battleground. It's also the moving story of a boy trying to live long enough to become a man.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE DIVERSE BOOK AWARDS'A true artist. A brilliant writer. An original thinker' Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieYorùbá Boy Running charts Samuel Ajayi Crowther's miraculous journey from slave to liberator, boy to man, running to resisting. Based on real historical events.'Run, Àjàyí, run!'The day the Malian slave traders invaded the Nigerian town of Òsogùn, thirteen-year-old Àjàyí's life was split in two.Before, there was his childhood, surrounded by friends and family, watched over by the ancient Yorùbá gods of forest and water, earth and sky. After: capture, slavery - and release, into the service of a new god, his own culture left far behind. So Àjàyí becomes Samuel Crowther - missionary, linguist, minister - and abolitionist: driven to negotiate against his own people to end the miserable trade in human beings which destroyed his family.Drawing on the prolific writings of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, Biyi Bándélé has created a many-voiced, kaleidoscopic portrait of an extraordinary man. From the heart-stopping drama of Àjàyí's last day of freedom to the farcical intrigue of the Òsogùn court; from a meeting with Queen Victoria; to his consecration as the first African Bishop of the Anglican Church, his journey, like all great odysseys, circles back to where he began. By turns witty, moving and quietly political, Biyi Bándélé's reimagining of Crowther's life is a brilliant tour de force.WITH AN INTRODUCTION FROM WOLE SOYINKA‘Biyi Bándélé had a prolifically talented and creative mind, shown in everything he touched. Yorùbá Boy Running is no exception’ Chiwitel EjioforCover artwork Chris Ofili, Blind Leading Blind, 2005 © The artist.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE DIVERSE BOOK AWARDS 2025LONGLISTED FOR THE ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE 2026Yorùbá Boy Running charts Samuel Ajayi Crowther's miraculous journey from slave to liberator, boy to man, running to resisting'Run, Àjàyí, run!'The day the Malian slave traders invaded the Nigerian town of Òsogùn, thirteen-year-old Àjàyí's life was split in two.Before, there was his childhood, surrounded by friends and family, watched over by the ancient Yorùbá gods of forest and water, earth and sky. After: capture, slavery - and release, into the service of a new god, his own culture left far behind. So Àjàyí becomes Samuel Crowther - missionary, linguist, minister - and abolitionist: driven to negotiate against his own people to end the miserable trade in human beings which destroyed his family.From the heart-stopping drama of Àjàyí's last day of freedom to his consecration as the first African Bishop of the Anglican Church, Biyi Bándélé's kaleidoscopic reimagining of Crowther's life is a brilliant tour de force.WITH AN INTRODUCTION FROM WOLE SOYINKA'A true artist. A brilliant writer. An original thinker' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‘Biyi Bándélé had a prolifically talented and creative mind, shown in everything he touched. Yorùbá Boy Running is no exception’ Chiwitel EjioforCover artwork Chris Ofili, Blind Leading Blind, 2005 © The artist.

Two plays by one of Britain's most prolific young black authors Brixton Stories Ossie Jones is an immigration lawyer in Brixton, London, a place full of wordmongers, preachers and prophets. One day he falls into a coma, is arrested for a crime he has not committed and is locked up in prison with a triple-lifer. Biyi Bandele's witty and engaging play is in a world in which fantasy may, troublingly, be more real than reality. Brixton Stories premiered at The Tricycle Theatre, London, 2001. Happy Birthday, Mister Deka D 'I went for a walk. I fought in a war. I took long rides on the tube. I met someone new. We had a child. She met someone new. The seasons changed. I changed with the seasons...That's why I'm here.' Relationships are as elusive as memory iself in this poetic and lyrical play. Happy Birthday Mister Deka D premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in August 1999 and transferred to the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith.Praise for Happy Birthday, Mister Deka D: "A little miracle of stillness" Independent "A perky, quirky look at love, laughter and forgetting, Mister Deka D suggests that only when you stop avoiding the issue are you able to move on" The Times