Both a wonderful memoir of an exotic childhood and a striking portrait of one of the world's most beguiling countries. A gem of a book. Alexander McCall Smith Author of the bestselling Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency series An elegant, evocative, poignant, beautifully-written piece of work.
Michela Wrong Author of In the footsteps of Mr Kurtz and I didn't do it for you
Captivating, candid and utterly fresh. Twenty Chickens for a Saddle is a story of chilhood, tenderness and joy. It lets in the light.
Aminatta Forna
Author of The Devil that Danced on the Water and Ancestor Stones
A book of delight - an account not so much an African childhood as of an ideal childhood, written with a precise detached intimacy, packed with acute observation, and filled throughout with illustrations of human nature that transcend the wonderful country that provided them, which has all the makings of a classic of the genre.
Michael Holman Author of Last Orders at Harrods
Robyn Scott has written a rare gem of a memoir that will appeal to anyone who knows Africa, with all its beauty and frustrations – not mention to anyone else who enjoys a good, poignant, eloquent tale about the painful, funny process of growing up anywhere on earth. Her prose is graceful, vivid and dry, and her self-observations are priceless. Anyone who has ever raised a child – or been one – will love this book.
Patti Waldmeir Author of The Anatomy of a Miracle
Robyn Scott writes vividly about her extraordinary childhood in Botswana. Reading about her adventures settling into a new and very different life in the deep bush, I felt almost as if I'd shared them with her - and wished I had. The Africa she describes is a wild and wonderful place, full of beauty and danger, illness and devastation, but also a compelling innocence: something we don't often think about in connection with Africa, but which is still there, thank God.
Samantha Weinberg Author of A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth
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