The £100 writing course that led to award for best first novel

Segun Afolabi, 41, is this year's winner of the Authors' Club best first novel award for Goodbye Lucille - which tells the story of Vincent, a photographer in Berlin whose life is shaken by the murder of a politician.

Afolabi told the Standard: "It's wonderful to be recognised by one's contemporaries."

The author, who lives in Kilburn and works as a freelance editor for charities including the NSPCC, was born in Nigeria but his family went on to live in Congo, Canada, East Germany and Japan. He came to Britain to study management and economics at Cardiff University.

"At university I discovered writers from places such as North America, Africa and India and that's when I really became interested in writing," he explained. "I tried to write a few times and it just didn't happen so after university, I took a job at a bookshop in Gower Street and signed up to the course Way To Writing at City Lit."

City Lit, in Covent Garden, is London's largest adult education college.

"It was mind blowing and I found it to be a really encouraging and supportive atmosphere," Afolabi said. "It was just one evening a week for one term and cost me around £100 but the course, which was led by Scottish author Allison Sell, was so empowering and drew all kinds of people who had a passion for writing."

Afolabi's writing deals with displacement and exile, themes clearly influenced by his unorthodox upbringing. "Although I do not consciously draw on my upbringing, I guess we are all products of it," he said. "As a child I absolutely loved travelling but as I grew older I resented it more and wanted to have my own home, my own neighbourhood."

Now he draws inspiration from London. "I have neighbours who are Kosovan, Polish and African. This is the most multicultural and fascinating city I've ever lived in."

Afolabi first won acclaim in 2005 when he was awarded the Caine prize for African writing for a short story. He received his latest award last night at The Arts Club in Mayfair - home of the Authors' Club - by writer and publisher Carmen Callil, who led this year's judging panel. She said: "All the novels on the shortlist were excellent but Segun had that extra something. His voice reaches out and after I read Goodbye Lucille it lingered in my thoughts. I'm sure he will go on to make a big contribution to literature."

Goodbye Lucille is published today by Vintage. Price: £7.99.