Petina Gappah

There's a Shona saying: 'chakafukidza dzimba matenga' - 'What covers the home is the roof,' or 'Every home has its secrets.'

For the first years of my life, I went to school in Rhodesia. My memory of living in the townships is that they were actually really happy places.

I speak English. I dream in it. I cannot separate my English from my Shona; I see the world with those two languages.

With the lessons taken from the financial crisis in 1997, the Republic of Korea has been able to surmount the global economic crisis rather successfully.

The judge said I was a menace to society because I had put crime on a scientific basis.

I like villains because there's something so attractive about a committed person - they have a plan, an ideology, no matter how twisted. They're motivated.