`Altogether a pleasure to read. The editors have chosen 20 stories by 20 different writers from all over Africa.’ Chinua Achebe, the distinguished Nigerian writer, and C.L. Innes, a lecturer and literary critic of African and Caribbean literature, have collaborated in selecting and introducing this anthology of short stories.

Chinua Achebe has taught at the Universities of Nigeria, Massachusetts and Connecticut and among the many honours he has received, he holds the Fellowship of the Modern Language Association of America and doctorates from the Universities of Stirling, Southampton and Kent. His best-selling, classic novel Things Fall Apart, first published in 1958, has now sold over eight million copies and been translated into more than 45 languages. His later novels, short stories and poems have earned him numerous prizes including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and the Scottish Arts Council Neil Gunn Fellowship.

In 1987, he was recognised in Nigeria with the Nigerian National Merit Award – the country's highest award for intellectual achievement. C.L. Innes has taught English and Comparitive Literature at universities in Australia, the United States and England.

She has co-edited Critical Perspectives on Chinua Achebe (Heinemann) and published a number of articles on African, Australian and Irish literature. Her other books include The Devil's Own Mirror: The Irish and the African in Modern Literature (Three Continents Press, Washington D.C.) and Chinua Achebe (Cambridge University Press).