If I had just two words allowed for this title, they’d be “stock it”, but I’d go on to say that this is a real gem – an excellent hand-sell title.  Nobody could fail to love this story of an eccentric childhood, so movingly and joyously described by Scott.  But, as ever with the sun, the shade is lurking in the background and in Scott’s home in Botswana it’s the growing threat of AIDS.  With a doctor for a father, it’s a problem she’s aware of from an early age as her father struggles to minister to the growing demands of his patients and, now in her late twenties, Scott has established a charity to care for AIDS orphans. Sue Baker, Personal Choice.

Robyn Scott’s remarkably pioneering childhood in the wilds of Botswana comes to life in Twenty Chickens for a Saddle, describing how she was home-schooled by her mother while her flying doctor father tried to counter the growing burden of AIDS among his patients. Maris Ross on new names to watch.