IT DIDN'T TAKE LONG, AFTER he had moved in with us, for Dambudzo to put a whole manuscript together, consisting of prose and poetry and a number of plays. He gave the compilation the title Killwatch or Tony Fights Tonight .

But who would publish it? His homecoming from London the year before, when the papers had been full of the ‘prodigal son’, the Guardian Fiction laureate who had put Zimbabwean literature into the international limelight, had been a sensational event. The subsequent falling out with Chris Austin, which sabotaged the projected film about his return, had caused a stir, as had the famous ‘farewell lecture’ he’d staged – one of the punch lines in the narrative of his life – before leaving the country again (which hadn't happened because he did not have a passport). But since then it had become quiet around Dambudzo. Nobody seemed to care about him.

Nevertheless, he was feeling good and he was optimistic about his new manuscript. He suggested we talk to Marilyn Poole, a friend from England, who was the representative in Harare of Longman Publishers. Distinguished and beautiful, and graceful at six feet tall, Marilyn stood out at every social gathering she attended. In her slightly old-fashioned elegance it was no surprise that she was cast as the British ambassador's wife when a new version of King Solomon's Mineswas filmed in Zimbabwe – Rider Haggard set in post-colonial Zimbabwe, another irony of the time.

We had Marilyn over for dinner. She seemed really fond of Dambudzo and in the months to come she would become, together with Victor and I, a strong supporter of his; she contributed to maintaining his daily upkeep before and during his illness. She took the manuscript and said she would try to place it with Longmans. However, it did not work out. Essentially, Longmans were school textbook publishers and, with its mixture of different genres, Dambudzo's new book did not fit into any of their categories.

This was a blow. Many more were to come.

It was at that point that Victor and I were thinking of organising a public reading for Dambudzo in the hope it would make him more visible again and also do something to lift his spirits.

‘This country is not ripe for writers like myself,’ Dambudzo moaned. ‘Look at my last manuscript. Mindblast .