Jackie Collins Wannabe

The Scostman takes the angle of “Wow! black people want to write trashy novels too!” in this profile of Lesley Lokko, an architect turned author. The Scottish-born, Ghana-raised Lokko spent a few years in South Africa and came back to Scotland with an idea for a novel

“When I first started, I remember ringing up an agent and saying I wanted to write a book about Africa. He just said, ‘If you want to sell 300 copies, go ahead. Africa doesn’t sell.’ I kept thinking, ‘Would it be possible to write about Africa in the genre of a blockbuster? Could you write Africa with Shirley Conran in mind?'”

And she did.