Did you know that shnourkovat’ sya, which literally translates to ‘to lace boots’, is Russian for a driver who changes lanes frequently and unreasonably? Or that the German word tantenverf∑hrer is used to describe a young man of excessively good manners that one suspects of devious motives? Its literal meaning is ‘an aunt seducer’.

This amusing and fascinating collection offers insight into cultures across the globe and, despite our differing languages, the words often reveal that the commonality of human experience remains strong.

And for those who don’t already know, tingo is an Easter Island word meaning to borrow objects from a friend’s house, one by one, until there is nothing left…

Twenty Chickens for a Saddle
Robyn Scott, 2008, Bloomsbury Publishing, hardback, 464 pages, £14.99
Being transplanted from the pleasant pastures of New Zealand to a converted cowshed in the wilds of Botswana would undoubtedly have an impact on any six-year-old. For the author, it was life changing. This humorous, yet uplifting and engaging book is an account of her family’s 15 years in Botswana.

With only haphazard home schooling from her mother, Robyn was more often than not left to her own devices, and she grew up collecting snakes, canoeing with crocodiles and breaking in horses in the veld. She quickly fell in love with the country, the same one that her eccentric grandfather used to fly over while serving as the pilot to Botswana’s first president. Robyn’s father, meanwhile, was throwing all his efforts behind his flying doctor practice, endeavouring, with inconsistent success, to adapt to the unique demands of rural clinics and the one of the continent’s worst AIDS crises.

Twenty Chickens for a Saddle is an intensely moving depiction of an extraordinary place and family, offering a unique depiction of modern Botswana, one of Africa’s rare democratic success stories.

The Jive Talker
Samson Kambalu, 2008, Jonathan Cape, Random House, hardback, 320 pages, £16.99
Sam Kambalu’s father is ‘the Jive Talker’ of this surprising memoir. He was “a man of thwarted ambition, boundless optimism and manic philosophising”, trading in his dreams of being a doctor for hospital administration and leading his ever expanding family on a seemingly endless journey that took them from riches to rags and back again.

Set during President Kamuzu Banda’s rule, readers are introduced to a period of Malawi’s history when no dissent was tolerated and when political opponents often ‘disappeared’. Amazingly, it was in this same atmosphere that Sam grew up obsessed with books, girls, fashion, football and Michael Jackson. With his father’s love for words and an over-active imagination, he eventually won a free education at the Kamuzu Academy (the ‘Eton’ of Africa), something that unquestionably helped him on his way to becoming one of England’s most promising young conceptual artists.

In this ingenious, often seditious, book, Samson Kambalu takes no artistic license, writing with witty and powerful prose. The Jive Talker takes you into a period of African history that has rarely been touched on before.

The Glenthorne Cat
Christopher Ondaatje, 2008, HarperCollins Publishers, soft cover, 217 pages, £7.95
Christopher Ondaatje, the world-renowned adventurer, biographer and storyteller, returns with a captivating collection of extraordinary leopard stories. Crossing the globe to track them, and their lingering legends, Ondaatje clearly feels that these large cats are both his destiny and talisman.

This compilation contains the twelve most alluring and compelling tales – some true, some fictional – that he came across. He also includes a few of his own accomplished stories, including ‘the Glenthorne Cat’, a personal and ghostly account that takes place in the author’s isolated gothic manor clinging to the Devon cliffs. From an unlikely British wood to the silent forests and teeming cities of India, Ceylon, Burma and Africa, these stories cross different cultures and imaginations, all united in their skill at portraying one of the most dangerously unpredictable predators on earth. This book will captivate anyone who likes a good story.