Olaudah Equiano

'Cut iron with iron, What makes iron valuable, Big kuku tree and big silk-cotton tree, Fari and Kaunju -' Told and retold since the fourteenth century, this West African epic chronicles the story of the mighty warrior who saves his people and founds an empire. This is one of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. But is not the slave trade entirely a war with the heart of man? In 1789, Olaudah Equiano published his remarkable autobiography of his journey from enslavement to freedom. Kidnapped from his home in West Africa and sold into slavery as a child, Equiano – renamed Gustavus Vassa – travelled the world as an enslaved man, before he eventually purchased his freedom and became a leading figure in the British abolition campaign. One of the earliest known books published by a Black African author, Equiano’s vivid and harrowing life story shed light on the atrocities of the transatlantic slave trade. The Interesting Narrative has been widely celebrated for its impact on the abolitionist movement and remains today a powerful record of the horrors of slavery.