This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies in for Terry Gross. Raising children can present

dilemmas for parents. To name one, how tough should you be if your kids are wasting too much time

on television instead of doing their schoolwork? Well, imagine taking scissors and cutting the power

court of the TV set and telling your daughter she can watch television again when she's earned

admission to Oxford University. That's a true story, told in the new memoir by our guest,

CNN International Anchor, Zayn Asher. She was born in London to parents who were immigrants from

Nigeria and much of her book is about her mother, who overcame poverty, famine, and civil war in

Nigeria before raising four children and a struggling neighborhood in London. Asher's early childhood

was interrupted by a devastating family tragedy which you'll soon hear about. Her mother then went

to extraordinary lengths to give her children the skills, resilience, and determination to be

successful in life, and they were. One became a doctor, another a businessman, and Asher's brother

is Chua-Tel Egyafor, the actor nominated for an Oscar for his role in 12 years of slave.

Zayn Asher is a graduate of Oxford and the Columbia School of Journalism. She currently hosts the

CNN International Program, One World with Zayn Asher, which airs weekdays at noon. Her new memoir is

Where the Children Take Us. Zayn Asher, welcome to Fresh Air. Thank you so much and say God to be here.

Your story begins with the tragedy that befell your family when you were just five years old.

You were living in London with your mom and dad and two older brothers. Give us just a little bit

of the circumstances of your family life there in London at the time. My parents, as you mentioned,

were immigrants from Nigeria at the time of the tragedy they lived in London for about 18 years.

And you know, they were struggling. My dad was a trainee doctor on his way to becoming fully

qualified. My mom ran a pharmacy in a neighborhood known as Brixton, which in the 80s was quite a

difficult neighborhood. It was certainly beset by poverty and crime at the time. And so, you know,

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