Robin Anderson Author Reviews

Four Zimbabwean Adventure Tales

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

"A wonderfully engaging world where true life meets make-believe..."

Enid Blyton meets Gerald Durrell in a joyous celebration of Zimbabwe in ‘Four Zimbabwean Adventure Tales’, penned by Robin Anderson. With his usual flawless writing and narrative flair, Anderson takes his young reader on four wonderfully immersive escapades, complete with talking animals, each with their own perfectly crafted disposition and temperament.

Within the pages of these four novellas, the teaching possibilities are endless- the beautiful Zimbabwean landscape and topography are exquisitely described, as is the unique national fauna. Anderson describes tribes and customs, and astonishing historical stories of treasure and treason; the Queen of Sheba (who can, you should know, talk to animals herself!) taking centre stage in two of these delightful tales.
Animal territories and their strange habits and personalities are discovered as Anderson portrays each according to their natural characteristics- cue the larger-than-life celebrity flamingo Scarlett, her slightly camp brother, Scott, and Fi the exuberantly manic Flamenco dancing Firefly! In fact, every character and animal is created down to the very last detail and all become familiar and cherished – even the dastardly and disgusting Hideous and Heidi the Hyenas and their side-kicks, the Gangrenes.

The penultimate story, ‘Warris the Albino Wins the Day’, imparts the valuable lesson of treating others with decency, whilst the final adventure promotes the care of wildlife and their habitats. Through these pages, young readers come to appreciate that animals are not a commodity, to be enjoyed or used at will, but living and breathing creatures in their own right, with feelings and personalities.

Above all, this book is super fun. The delightfully nefarious and the guiltless innocent mix together in a brilliant mixing pot of enjoyment, as one plot is overcome by another, with the blameless always coming out on top.

With its unapologetic play-on-words and a touch of Disney humour, ‘Four Zimbabwean Adventure Tales’ will be thoroughly enjoyed by parents and guardians, teachers and the occasional Granny too!

Anderson is quite simply a natural writer, sweeping his reader along in a wonderfully engaging world where true life meets make-believe, all neatly packaged under the gold, pink, purple and red of the Zimbabwean sky.

This lovely tetralogy cannot be recommended enough and is unreservedly recommended!

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★ ★ ★ ★ ★

"Stellar cast, both animal and human, add whimsy and power to
the four tales herein"

Kathy Kozakewich – Editor

Received my copy of the fabulous children's book, "Four Zimbabwean Adventure Tales", by the inimitable and multi-talented, Robin Anderson.

Once again I found myself utterly swept up in the grand adventures related in another of Anderson's books. His storytelling has always captivated me. In these fantastic—and fantastical—children's stories, he opens new vistas. This time he's managed to charm as well as enthrall.

"Four Zimbabwean Adventure Tales" hearkens back to bygone days and features the magic of childhood, with the attendant richness of children's imaginations. The setting, Zimbabwe of "a few years ago", is superb and is an integral part of each of the four stories, which are witty, extremely fun, and wonderfully rich in scope.

The animal cast is unsurpassed; the characters, both human and animal, run the gamut from wonderfully charming and heroic to obnoxious and very unpleasant.

There is never a dull moment and each story has a sublime and very satisfying ending – very satisfying indeed. :)

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★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Grady Harp

"Too much mohobohobo wine more likely"

Robin Anderson takes a million and one chances in this stingingly funny novel and his writing style is so adept that he knows exactly how to balance camp with storyline. A little background: Anderson was born in Scotland and educated in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and South Africa and while his novels have a decidedly bent twist, his day job is that of an internationally respected interior designer. What we have not encountered in his previous novels is his dedication to animals - except of course the pets of his characters we have met.

In this book Robin steps outside the world of misbehaving and naughty and sexy people and focuses instead on the animal life of Zimbabwe - a region quite familiar to him. But make no mistake, his glib humor is still present and just because the animal stories are about non-humans does not mean that animals don't have all-too-similar qualities - a fact he of course uses to weave these marvelously entertaining tales. This Robin's take on anthropomorphism with a twist.

No one can synopsize these stories better than the author, so here is a heady plate of appetizers: TALE ONE: THE ADVENTURES OF MAISIE THE MEERKAT & BUNTI THE BUSHBABY - THE RESCUE OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA'S JEWELS. TALE TWO: THE ADVENTURES OF FI THE FIREFLY & MOMBASSA THE MILLIPEDE - THE FOILING OF HIDEOUS & HEIDI THE HYENAS' HORRIBLE PLOT. TALE THREE: WARRIS THE ALBINO WARTHOG WINS THE DAY! TALE FOUR: THE ADVENTURES OF LUCY THE BABOON & CHARLIE THE CHEETAH. Accompanying these stories are some fabulous illustrations of the characters involved (artist not designated so they like are Robin's creations). And for details hardly imaginable you will simply have to read these shorties but goodies for yourself. Suffice it to say that Robin Anderson, even in this wild territory, will have you guffawing through to the end.

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Amos Lassen

I must admit I know nothing about Zimbabwe except what I hear on the news. By surprise I received a package with ROBIN ANDERSON’S stories and my curiosity got the best of me and I sat down to read and I did not stop until I’d finished reading what I was sent! ANDERSON knows Zimbabwe well and he really knows how to write and these stories that are primarily written for young readers had me mesmerised.