Twenty Chickens for a Saddle: The Story of an African Childhood

When Robyn Scott was six years old her parents abruptly exchanged the tranquil pastures of New Zealand for a converted cowshed in wilds of Botswana.

There they set off in the pioneering and unconventional footsteps of Robyn's eccentric grandfather, who has served as a pilot to Seretse Khama, Botswana's first president. Their three small children, mostly left to amuse themselves, grew up collecting snakes, canoeing with crocodiles and breaking in horses in he veld.

This is the story of the family's fifteen years in Botswana, during which Linda Scott haphazardly and single-handedly home-schooled Robyn, Damien and Lulu, while Keith ran a flying-doctor practice and attempted, with erratic success, to adapt to the unique demands of rural clinics and growing burden of AIDS.