Maya Angelou's seven volumes of autobiography, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings are a testament to the talents and resilience of this extraordinary writer.

Angelou has known discrimination and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement and celebration. In the fifth volume, Maya Angelou emigrates to Ghana only to discover that 'you can't go home again', but she comes to a new awareness of love and friendship, civil rights and slavery - and the myth of mother Africa.

'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' BARACK OBAMA

'She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds' OPRAH WINFREY

'She continues with all the freshness and warmth of her earlier books' EVENING STANDARD

'Maya Angelou has an amazing ability to take readers into her personal maze and them out again feeling refreshed and even jubilant' GUARDIAN