Derek Owusu: ‘I didn’t read a book until the age of 24’

<p>The writer on bingeing Henry James, his friendship with Benjamin Zephaniah and a confidence-boosting classic</p><p><strong>My earliest reading memory</strong> <br>
When I was about four or five, I think. I was living in Long Melford, Suffolk, with my foster parents, and my foster dad was trying to teach me how to read using those Biff and Chip books.</p><p><strong>My favourite book growing up</strong><br>
I never read a book until the age of 24, so there wasn’t a favourite until I was about 25, and they usually changed with every new book I read. It started with <a href="https://guardianbookshop.com/the-woman-who-rode-away-st-mawr-the-princess-9780141441665/?utm_source=editoriallink&amp;utm_medium=merch&amp;utm_campaign=article">St Mawr</a> by DH Lawrence, then EM Forster’s <a href="https://guardianbookshop.com/where-angels-fear-to-tread-9780141199252/?utm_source=editoriallink&amp;utm_medium=merch&amp;utm_campaign=article">Where Angels Fear to Tread</a> and <a href="https://guardianbookshop.com/the-time-machine-9781847496270/?utm_source=editoriallink&amp;utm_medium=merch&amp;utm_campaign=article">The Time Machine</a> by HG Wells, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, and then it was F Scott Fitzgerald’s <a href="https://guardianbookshop.com/the-great-gatsby-9781035058587/?utm_source=editoriallink&amp;utm_medium=merch&amp;utm_campaign=article">The Great Gatsby</a> for a very long time. But that lost its place last year when I finally read <a href="https://guardianbookshop.com/the-real-life-of-sebastian-knight-9780141185996/?utm_source=editoriallink&amp;utm_medium=merch&amp;utm_campaign=article">The Real Life of Sebastian Knight</a> by Vladimir Nabokov.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/oct/31/derek-owusu-i-never-read-a-b