Why I . . . wrote my memoir

Abstract

Ike Anya talks to Kathy Oxtoby about how he realised his dream of having a published memoir When Ike Anya was working his way through medical training in Nigeria his grandmother reassured him, “Everything worthwhile is achieved small by small.” Some 30 years later, Anya chose that saying as the title of his memoir. “You become a doctor ‘small by small.’ This Nigerian expression is also a lovely way of paying tribute to my grandmother,” says Anya, a consultant in public health medicine who works as a locum and is based in London. In his memoir, Anya recalls the achievements and failures of his student days and his first demanding year as a house officer while living in 1990s Nigeria during a time of political unrest, social change, and a worsening economy. Of the process of creating his memoir he says, “You have to be incredibly honest in your writing. I felt there would be no interest in a memoir that only paints a good picture.” You also have …