You may have seen the story. This is the whole of it.
When George's journey — from failing the SSSCE with four Fs and three Es to teaching at the University of Oxford — spread across Ghana's social media, it travelled far beyond anyone who knew him. The Back Route tells the story behind those few lines: the six lost years, the shoeshine box in Accra, the grief, the mentors, and the long road that made everything else possible.
The book
A memoir about the long way round.
A boy rides a failing bicycle five miles to school on an untarred road, fails his exams, starts again, and keeps starting again — across Kumasi, Accra, Belfast, Sheffield, and finally Oxford. The Back Route is a book about being helped: clear-eyed about how far talent alone travels without the small, decisive interventions of other people. It is out now from Oxter Press.
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The story
Promoted three grades in a single afternoon. Then he failed every exam.
3 gradesskipped in a single afternoon — a village prodigy
4 Fs · 3 Esin the SSSCE — Ghana's final school exam
Shoeshinea boy kneeling on Accra's hot pavements
Oxforda PhD, now a Fellow at the University of Oxford
As a boy, George Asiamah was accelerated three grades in a single afternoon — a village prodigy reading far beyond his years. Six years later the slip came back with four Fs and three Es: he had failed every subject in his final secondary-school exam, Ghana's SSSCE. He became a truant, then a failed candidate, then a shoeshine boy in Accra, kneeling on hot pavements to mend the shoes of men who would not look at his face. What followed — re-sitting the exams, a place at KNUST, a fully funded Commonwealth Scholarship to a master's in Belfast, a Grantham Scholarship to a PhD in Sheffield, and a Fellowship at the University of Oxford, where he teaches today — is a story not about being exceptional, but about the small interventions that let an ordinary boy keep going.
The actual statement of results — West African Examinations Council, July 2003. Four Fs and three Es, and the start of a much longer road.
ChichibonA prodigy — promoted three grades in a day.
TrabuomSecondary school. The SSSCE slip: four Fs, three Es.
AccraA shoeshine boy on hot pavements.
KNUSTRe-sat the exams. Won a place.
BelfastA Commonwealth Scholarship — and, months in, his mother's death.
SheffieldA Grantham Scholarship, then a PhD.
OxfordA Fellow — he teaches PPE here now.
A boy from Chichibon.The same boy, a PhD later.
“There was no one thing… None of these, on its own, would have done the work. All of them, in sequence, did.”
Not every meaningful journey takes the expected road. Share the detour, setback, second chance, or helping hand that changed where you were going.
Stories from the road
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Meet the author
Hello — I'm George.
I grew up in Chichibon, a village in Ghana's Ashanti Region — barely twelve miles from Kumasi, but light years from its tarred roads and streetlights. As a boy I was moved up three grades in a single afternoon; a few years later I failed the SSSCE with four Fs and three Es, left school, and spent six years finding my way back — through a shoeshine box in Accra, a re-sat exam, and a great deal of help from people who had no reason to give it.
I went on to KNUST, then won a fully funded Commonwealth Scholarship for a master's in Belfast and a Grantham Scholarship for a PhD in Sheffield; today I teach on the PPE programme — Philosophy, Politics and Economics — at the University of Oxford. The Back Route is the whole of that story — not because the ending is unusual, but because the middle is. I wrote it for anyone who has been counted out too early.
Press & media
For journalists & booksellers
Dr George Asiamah is a Fellow and Tutor in Politics at Exeter College, University of Oxford, and the author of The Back Route (Oxter Press, August 2026). He grew up in Chichibon in Ghana's Ashanti Region, studied on a Commonwealth Scholarship and a Grantham Scholarship, and writes on political economy and on the long, unlikely routes into education. He is available for interviews, features, festival appearances, and events around the launch.
Media & trade kit
Author bio, hi-res photographs, cover art, jacket copy, publication details, and media fact sheet.
