Bucchi Emecheta

Bucchi Emecheta is a British writer, who comes from Nigeria. She has written a few novels and books for children so far. She wrote at first about women’s problems. She also writes about motherhood.

She has been awarded many prizes, e. g. she has been awarded the Best Black British Writer award and the Arts Council of Great Britain award.

Bucchi Emecheta was born into a family of a railway worker during the war (1944). She spent her early childhood in a mission girls’ boarding school as she was orphaned.

At the age of sixteen she got married. In the early 1960’s she followed her husband from Nigeria to London. Later, she was separated from him and left with their five children to bring them up alone. While working as a librarian, she became a student of London University. Her subject was sociology.

Now she lives with her children in a dilapidated terrace house in North London. This house is quite big with a few rooms, three bathrooms and two baths.

Her daily regime starts around 4 a.m. She wakes up and makes plans for the day. She gets up at 6 a.m. She dresses up in her tracksuit and runs around the block. When she returns from jogging she has breakfast – it is usually leftovers, because she considers wasting food to be a sin. In an hour, she cleans all of the rooms in the house. She wipes down the dust, makes the beds, sweeps and mops the floors, vacuums, and does other household things.

She writes every day from about 10 a.m. to 3 in the afternoon. After writing she looks after her five children, all in their teens. She buys the necessary food and cooks for them.

In the evening she nearly always listens to the radio, because she likes singing and music. She also sometimes reads other peoples’ work.

During the weekends, she seldom misses a Matins in the local church. Once a week she sings in this church in the choir. However, she prefers staying at home.

Bucchi Emecheta had a hard life. As a child she was orphaned. She got married early and divorced quickly. She had to bring up her children alone. She earns a living by writing books and lecturing. She is a very strong woman with a sense for work and for family. She is a very good mother, very modest, industrious, careful, and full of life.