What are you reading right now?

Offbeat: Collaborating with Kerouac by David Amram.

Tell us a bit about it:

David is and 87 year old American musician who played and plays with a lot of interesting people. He was great buddies with and collaborated with Jack Kerouac.

What is your favourite book of all time?

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig.

Tell us a bit about it:

It's a motorcycle journey and philosophical enquiry that had an effect on me in my teens.

What book do you remember most from your childhood?

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis.

Which of your books is battered from using over and over again?

A Life For The Djembe: Traditional music of the Malinke by Mamady Keita with Uschi Billmeier.

Tell us a bit about it:

It's the bible of djembe playing. It's out of print and mine is signed by Mamady Keita.

What is your favourite book by an International writer?

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger.

Tell us a bit about it:

It's a beautiful ode to teenage years and to New York.

Which book do you feel depicts your own or another culture most vividly?

The Famished Road by Ben Okri.

Tell us a bit about it:

It was my introduction to West African life and thinking. I read it shortly before my first trip to Senegal, though Ben Ocri is Nigerian.

Was there a book that really changed your mind about something? How?

The Easy Way to Give Up Smoking by Alan Carr.

Tell us a bit about it:

Does what is says on the tin!