This is the story of a young woman's first encounters with rural South Africa. Coming from the all-mod-cons society of Britain at the beginning of the 1980's, the author is literally transplanted to a farm in the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains in what is now Kwazulu Natal.

Once there, she finds her feet in the ways of Africa with the help of a charming, elderly Dutch couple, an appealing but wily African farm hand, his practical and motherly daughter and a wise and fascinating neighbour who has a fund of local knowledge.

Set in the closing years of Apartheid, these stories are not about politics or the injustices of the system.They are tales about the people and a different kind of life, which include living without electricity, hand-milking cows, drought, veld fires and mad-cap adventures into the unknown.

They are also stories told with deep affection and respect, and above all a liberal dose of tongue-in-cheek humour.