How they did it : Stories behind big books

A struggling single mother, Joanne Kathleen Rowling was travelling back to London on a crowded train when the idea for Harry Potter simply fell into her head. According to her website, to her immense frustration, Rowling didn’t have a functioning pen and was too shy to ask anybody if she could borrow one.
L-R : Chinua Achebe, now paralysed waist down due to a car accident is arguably the most read african author ; Ngugi who writes in his native Kikuyu language has won literary acclaim, with most of his books being translated to English ; Helen Oyeyemi wrot
L-R : Chinua Achebe, now paralysed waist down due to a car accident is arguably the most read african author ; Ngugi who writes in his native Kikuyu language has won literary acclaim, with most of his books being translated to English ; Helen Oyeyemi wrot
Times Reporter