Author Sir Ben Okri’s fortunes rotated after an astonishing breakthrough

Winning the Booker Prize for his 1991 novel The Famished Road had a life-changing impact on the finances of the then 32-year-old Sir Ben Okri, writes Donna Ferguson.

Now 66, he was knighted in 2023 for services to literature.

He lives in west London with his partner and their eight-year-old daughter Mirabella.

What did your parents teach you about money?

I inherited generosity from my father, and from my mother I got thrift and care.

Dad almost believed money could be magically summoned, so it came and went. When it was there, life was great and terrific. When it wasn’t, we learned to be resilient.

I came to London from Nigeria when I was one-and-a-half-years-old. Dad was studying law at university, with two or three jobs, so my two younger brothers and I rarely saw him. Mum worked as well – she became a chef.

Was money tight when you were growing up?

Yes, but all I knew was that sometimes things were good, and sometimes they were not so good.

We went back to Lagos when I was seven, on the eve of the Nigerian civil war, after Dad graduated. He became a self-employed lawyer dedicated to helping the poor. At times there would be a queue of people outside our house asking him to represent them, and often they had nothing to pay him with.

Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?

Absolutely. When I came back to England I had a scholarship from the Nigerian government to study literature at the University of Essex. The manuscript for my first novel, Flowers And Shadows, was practically the only thing in my suitcase.

I got that book and another published while at university. Everything was going well until one day my scholarship disappeared. To this day I don’t know what happened, but I had to leave without my degree and I became homeless.

I was in my very early 20s. I didn’t believe in being on the dole, so for weeks I slept rough in parks or in the doorways of banks, because they always had heating above the door.

Sometimes friends helped me or I would stay at their place. But even though I was sleeping in Tube stations, because I was a published author I had a sense of myself as a writer – that it was my destiny.

So I would turn up at magazine offices and offer to review books. I was also writing short stories, essays, poems, the beginnings of novels… I was sleeping rough in Charing Cross station, but I always had notebooks to write in.

Eventually I wrote enough short stories to publish an anthology. I wrote myself out of homelessness. But it was a difficult time. I’d wander the streets, looking in restaurants and watching people eat. I was as thin as nothing.

My parents didn’t know. When my mother found out – years later – she burst into tears.

What was the best year of your financial life?

The entire decade after I won the Booker Prize for The Famished Road was amazing. Winning that totally changes your finances – your books suddenly get translated into about 25 languages and sales go through the roof.

How much was the advance for The Famished Road?

I received a five-figure sum after submitting an outline and a page of my writing. It took me about a decade to finish, was nearly 600 pages long and a much better novel than I had promised. That book still brings in money for me from all over the world. It’s never been out of print.

What’s the most expensive thing you bought for fun?

A 17th-Century edition of Don Quixote, which I think is one of the greatest novels ever written, for several thousand pounds. I have never had it valued.

I don’t buy works of art for their value, I buy them for their beauty and because they give me strength in my work.

What has been your biggest money mistake?

About 20 years ago I considered buying a house in Little Venice [in west London] for half a million pounds. But it was near a highway and the windows rattled whenever a car went by, so I didn’t.

That house is worth millions today. So, financially, that was a mistake, but at the same time I think it would have given me a breakdown – I would have been shaking in my sleep every night.

I instead got my current flat, also in Little Venice, which was the best money decision I ever made. I bought it for about £350,000 and it’s almost tripled in value.

It’s in the loveliest part of London and has given me a lot of peace. I’ve written well and been happy here.

Do you save into a pension or invest in the stock market?

I used to invest in the stock market. Then one day, around the time of the 2008 crash, I lost £35,000. So that put me off. I have some modest investments, but I mostly use savings accounts.

I didn’t used to have a pension – I always thought my books would act as that – but I’ve now started one on the advice of my accountant.

What is the one little luxury you treat yourself to?

Holidays with my family. In recent years we’ve been to America, France and Italy.

I’ll spend whatever it takes for us to have a great time.

If you were Chancellor, what’s the first thing you would do?

I’d crack down on tax avoidance by companies and use that money to reduce taxes for middle and low-income earners.

It’s only fair for the wealthiest to pay their share, but I don’t think other people should be overburdened with tax.

The rich shouldn’t be taxed more than they are when big corporations get away with paying so little.

What is your number one financial priority?

Family, the art of writing and friendship – that’s what I want to spend money on.

I became a dad late, and it’s as though someone added a little paradise dimension to my life.

I’m very conscious of protecting my family and doing my best for my daughter.

• Madame Sosostris & The Festival For The Broken-Hearted, by Sir Ben Okri, is out now.
• The Everyman anthology of African Stories, edited by Ben Okri, is also out now. 

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