In this inspirational volume, the Booker Prize winning author makes essays into an art form. The ten pieces in this beautifully crafted collection range from the personal to the analytical, including a meditation on the role of the poet, a study of Picasso's Minotaur, a paean to human freedom in honour of Salman Rushdie, and an appraisal of fellow Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe. His first-hand experiences of civil war in Nigeria are said to have inspired many of his works. He writes about both the mundane and the metaphysical, the individual and the collective, drawing the reader into a world with vivid descriptions. Lyrical, imaginative and provocative, "A Way Of Being Free" confirms Ben Okri's status as one of the most inspiring of contempory writers.