That’s me, Mum! The Nigerian author who wrote a book about her children … and joined a publishing revolution

Simone, who inspired the first black main character with Down’s syndrome in a children’s book, with her brother Ugo. Photograph: Courtesy of Tonye Faloughi-Ekezie

When Tonye Faloughi-Ekezie decided to write her first book it was for her own children and she printed just two copies. She had been trying to explain to her son why people came to the house to play with his sister, Simone, but not him.

“When my son, Ugo, was about five, he came up to me perplexed and asked why he was not allowed to join in,” the Nigerian author recalls. “I explained to him that those people who visited were actually therapists because Simone has Down’s syndrome. Of course, he went on to ask me ‘what is Down’s syndrome?’.”