My Wife Cars And Other Animals

This book will take you back to a time before the great unwashed thought the world was desperate to see photos of their latest meal-or worse.

It's a story about growing up in Africa, a land full of things that could kill you but usually didn't-.

While life is often filled with sadness and stress, you'll find little of that here. The world needs less gloom and more humour.

Everyone grows up, though some take longer than others, and a few never quite manage it.

There are no heroes in this story-just the raw, unvarnished experience of growing up, farts and all. And there are, oddly enough, a lot of those.

If the characters in this book bear any resemblance to someone, it's purely intentional. This is a sort of biography, after all.

It's a humorous account of learning to drive- in a wheelbarrow, attempting to get married far from a church or priest and too close to a witch doctor who didn't qualify,

A time and place where speed limits were a challenge and drink-driving was... well, just driving.

The police were always helpful-as long as you collected them yourself and brought them to the scene of the crime. A tricky task if the crime involved your car being nicked.

It's a collection of memories from a time before being offended became trendy, so yes, some parts may be offensive. Get over it.

A story from a land where, when asked what people used for lighting before candles, the answer was "electricity."

It's a place where inflation was so astronomical it defied calculation, chequebooks were so long they required an ironing board for support, and money was measured in feet rather than counted.

Discover why taking a trip on a local bus required an updated tetanus shot, why learning to fly was a necessity, and how Swaziland's demographic quirks have left many disgruntled voters around the world envious.

Come on a fishing trip on the Zambezi River, where getting arrested was just part of the adventure.

And yes, there's a lot of beer.

Everyone needs an African experience. If you're not convinced by the end of this book, it's probably because you didn't actually read it-or you live in a city and never left it.