Annex Achieng was born not so long ago -she’d like to believe-but it’s been decades. She started work as a journalist one day in 1997. Newsrooms then were smoking dens and typewriters were vogue. The job was interesting but sometimes repetitive. Conferences can be annoying. To escape, temporarily, she applied for the much coveted Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA) scholarship and won. She flew to England almost immediately via Israel. Annex Achieng lives in South London with her husband Luigi. They will soon adopt a dog. She says that writing is for those who feel that they can never sleep until they’ve jotted their daily thoughts down. She tutors privately and continues to write and work as a freelance journalist. She considers herself rather fortunate to have met The Queen, once very close indeed.