Noo Saro-Wiwa (No.3, 1986-94) is an award-winning author and travel writer. She was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and raised in England. Following her time at Roedean, she went on to attend King’s College London and Columbia University in New York.

Her first book, Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria, was selected as BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week in 2012, and was named The Sunday Times Travel Book of the Year, 2012. The book was shortlisted for numerous other awards as well as winning the Albatros Travel Literature Prize in Italy in 2016. Her second book, Black Ghosts: A Journey Into the Lives of Africans in China, was published in 2023 and was listed as one of the Financial Times Travel Books of 2023.

Noo currently writes for Condé Nast Traveller and was named as on one “The World’s 30 Most Influential Female Travellers”

1. What is your favourite memory of Roedean?

About twenty of us sitting in the Lawrence House common room and singing in unison to the soulful falsetto of the Bodyform TV advert jingle. These things only happen at boarding school.

2. What was the best piece of advice you were given while at School?

Various PE teachers telling me to stretch before doing exercises. I often ignored their advice at the time, but now that I’m approaching 50 and still playing netball, it’s vital that I stretch if I want to make it off the court in one piece.

3. When you were at Roedean, what did you want to be when you ‘grew-up’?

Up until age 16 I sustained those parent-pleasing delusions of becoming a doctor. By the sixth form I didn’t have a singular ambition but I had a strong interest in human geography and knew I wanted to travel.

4. What are you now you’ve grown up?

I’m an author, and a staff writer for Condé Nast Traveller magazine.

5. What does your job involve?

Travelling to destinations around the world, reviewing hotels and restaurants, writing feature stories and editing the other articles in the magazine. I also interview people – one of my most recent ones was with Michael Palin. 

6. What have you done that you are most proud of? 

Writing books despite having ADHD. My English teacher, Mrs Larkin, noticed my attention deficit issues in the sixth form, but I only finally addressed the issue this year and received a diagnosis. 

7. What are the three objects you would take with you to a desert island? 

I can’t live without music and writing material, so I would take a solar-powered MP3 player and laptop. And sliders – I don’t like walking barefoot on non-sandy surfaces.

8. What books have had a significant influence on you and why?

As a teenager, Nabokov’s Lolita sparked my love of prose; Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel taught me the importance of understanding the world from a multi-disciplinary perspective; and Martin Fletcher’s journalistic travelogue Almost Heaven planted the seed that led to me becoming a non-fiction author.

9. What is on your bucket list?
Writing more books; honing my photography skills; building a school (virtual or physical) in my ancestral village in Ogoniland, Nigeria. 

10. If you had one year and unlimited funds, what would you do? 

Be an undercover philanthropist. I’d travel the world, chat to lots of people and identify who’s most deserving of financial help.