“I am a quiet child, and I get up to stuff.” With a vivid imagination, headstrong and possibly too much energy, Katlynn’s childhood was part make-believe with a freedom to be herself.

In this refreshingly honest memoir Katlynn takes us through two decades of her early childhood in what was then Rhodesia. It was a time after WW2 when the next generation of pioneer stock built up a country they grew to love.

Times were hard, and hard times brought out the good and bad in people, many of whom are described here with no judgement but acceptance as only a child can give.

Sharing her fears of teachers, boarding school, loosing her Mother and being caught raiding the cachet of chocolates, reading books and her love of Beano comics, Katlynn reminds us all what it was once like to be a child.

However, it is her love of the bush, the freedom her ever-patient mother gives her children, the opportunity to live and explore whilst they move from camp to camp following Dad and his work which is the essence of this book.

The fun as a close-knit family who make their own films – young brother being the Egyptian army “poking a frog with his spear” – as well as malaria, bilharzia, snakes and crocodiles, home-schooling, and Mum’s terrible cooking, that brings to life a way of living few ever heard of or imagined.

Great historical world-wide events are used as a guided time-line. The establishment of the vast sugar estates, with their canals that Dad built, the growth of Chiredzi in the hot and humid lowveld of Rhodesia and the development of Fort Victoria, now Masvingo, are a meaningful addition to the history of Rhodesia.

An award winning memoir (Firebird Book Award) this is a truly enjoyable read. We look forward to Katlynn Brooke’s forth-coming memoir of more years of her unusual life.