Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight

Don't Let's go to the Dogs Tonight is a wonderfully evocative memoir of Alexandra Fuller's African childhood. Fuller regards herself "as a daughter of Africa", who spent her early life on farms in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia throughout the turbulent 1970s and 80s, as her parents "fought to keep one country in Africa white-run", but "lost twice" in Kenya and Zimbabwe. This is a profoundly personal story about growing up with a pair of funny, tough, white African settlers, and living with their "sometimes breathlessly illogical decisions", as they move from war-torn Zimbabwe to disease and malnutrition in Malawi, and finally the "beautiful and fertile" land of Zambia.

Central to Fuller's book is the intense relations between herself and her parents, a chain-smoking father able to turn round any farm in Africa, her glamorous older sister Vanessa, and the character who sits at the heart of the book, Fuller's "fiercely intelligent, deeply compassionate, surprisingly witty and terrifyingly mad" mother.

Fuller weaves together painful family tragedy with a wider understanding of the ambivalence of being part of a separatist white farming community in the midst of Black African independence. The majority of the book focuses on Fuller's early years in war-torn Zimbabwe, with "more history stuffed into its make-believe, colonial-dream borders than one country the size of a very large teapot should be able to amass." This is the most successful dimension of the book, as Fuller describes growing up on farm where her father is away most nights fighting "terrorists", and stripping a rifle takes precedence over school lessons. The sections on Malawi and Zambia are more prosaic, but this is a lyrical and accomplished memoir about Africa, which is "about adjusting to a new world view" and the author's "passionate love for a continent that has come to define, shape, scar and heal me and my family." --Jerry Brotton

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A real scratch and sniff book! - Rated
The narrative is so engaging and descriptive that your senses are brought alive and you are almost transported to Africa.
The child's eye view on events is refreshing, and adds another dimension to the unfurling events.
She has a lovely comic timing which sits comfortably, although often excruciatingly, with the harrowing tales of war, sadness and poverty.

Fascinating and funny - Rated
The true story of an eccentric white family living in Southern Africa through the wars of the 70s.Told from a child's point of view it's very honest & funny and is a brilliant insight into a fascinating time and place.

Once you have smelled the African bush - Rated
Intensely evocative.

There is an African saying that once you have recognised the smell of the bush it will never be forgotten...and that your heart will never leave Africa.

The terrs (terrorists) might have won the battle but have lost everything else.

Remember, Old Rhodies never die and this book explains why, but perhaps without the author really realising - but she certainly conveys the smell of the bush.

John Bell

A Great account of a unique upbringing. - Rated
As an avid reader of alot of African non-fiction, this book was unique in that I read it in two days without ever feeling as though I was become bored of it.

I really enjoyed her unique style, successfully used in her second book as well, with short chapters and anecdotes that were always interesting, if at times heart renching.

Where this book succeeds, and others in this genre fail, is in her "no-holds barred" approach which never leads to nostalgia.

Fuller's story itself is a unique one, in that it covers so much of Southern Africa's turbulent history, she was brought up in Rhodesia, Zambia and Malawi, which means that the reader gets both an interesting story and the history of this troubled region.

So, I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in modern history or in unusual biographies.

Disappointing - Rated
This is an honest, warts-and-all memoir of growing up in Africa in difficult circumstances. The style of writing is original and evokes well the sights, sounds and smells of Africa. But I found it hugely depressing, and after three attempt to get through it I had to abandon it. I suspect that you need to have lived in Africa to appreciate it fully, or maybe you just need to be in the right frame of mind to read it, but it was not for me.