FILM-MAKER and writer Rory Kilalea will launch his new book on Thursday with a signing at the Pitshanger Bookshop.

Colours: A monologue, is the first anthology of his plays and short stories, inspired by his time living and travelling in Africa.  The title refers to his prize-winning play about the struggle of an HIV positive woman living as a sex worker in Zimbabwe, who dreams of a better life for her daughter in the UK.

Originally a short story, it was adapted as a radio play for the BBC World Service, and then for the stage. It went on to win the Oxfam Susie Smith Prize for a piece of work in the field of HIV and Aids.

Mr Kilalea, of Pitshanger Lane recounted his joy and disbelief at the news he had won the £3,000 prize.

He said: “My friend had to persuade me it wasn’t a joke.”

The money allowed the play to tour the 2010 Edinburgh Festival and play at World Aids Day in Zimbabwe.

The launch will be at 7pm at the Pitshanger Bookshop, where there will be wine and other refreshments, as well as readings by the author and Brazilian actress Marcella Sant’Anna, reprising the role she played in 2010 at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, and in Zimbabwe.

Mr Kilalea said Ms Sant’Anna was justifiably nervous as a Brazilian playing a Zimbabwean woman in front of a Zimbabwean audience, but she took it on and the audience really believed she was a girl from the suburb next door.

The book includes short stories, partly based on real people Mr Kilalea has encountered, such as the tale of a young gay man in Zimbabwe, where homosexuality is still a crime described by President Mugabe as ‘a scourge implanted by the white man on a pure continent’.

Although the stories are set in Africa, the author said they are really about communication and their message is universal.

A successful script writer, Mr Kilalea has been writing poems and short stories since he was 11, alongside his film and television work. Also a teacher and lecturer, his first collection of published stories was a book for children inspired by local fairytales, entitled The Arabian Princess and other stories.

His next book will be a comedy recounting true stories from film sets he has worked on over the years.