1. Freya North: Home Truths
2. Khaled Hosseini: The Kite Runner
3. Kazuo Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go
4. Julian Barnes: Arthur & George
5. JM Coetzee: Slow Man
6. Audrey Niffennegger: The Time Traveller's Wife
7. John Irving: Until I Find You
8. Moses Isegawa: Abyssinian Chronicles
9. Ahmadou Kourouma: Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote
10. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Purple Hibiscus & Half of a Yellow Sun
11. Christopher Abani: Graceland

I had to really. As much as I pride myself on being an avid reader, the writing workshops I taught whilst on my book tour revealed criminal gaps in my knowledge of African literature. The delegates spewed out the names of supposedly well-known African literary giants faster than Nigerian's ex-dictator, Sani Abacha, could say, 'I'll take the whole lot.'

On getting back to the UK, I hotfooted it to New Beacon Books which is probably the only bookshop in the UK dedicated to Afro-Caribbean and Asian literature and has done since 1966. If there are others, I haven't heard about them. There was an Africa Centre in Convent Garden, London but I've been told it's no more, although I haven't verified this.

The only name on my book list I wasn't keen on was Chimamanda Adichie's. But seeing as she's fast on her way to becoming a Nigerian national literary treasure, it's only fair I do my bit and 'treasure' her.

Not all the Africans on the list were spewed out by the participants though. Some, I bought because I was curious, and as for the non-Africans on the list, well, you only live once. Might as well do it dangerously.