Cover of Tick Bite Fever

Tick Bite Fever

Tick Bite Fever is the unconventional memoir of a very unconventional childhood. In the early Seventies, Dave Bennun's family transplanted themselves from Swindon to the wilds of Kenya. His father, who was a doctor, had lived in Africa before (but had felt it expedient to leave when the South African government realised he was carting explosives around in the boot of his car for the ANC). But for Dave, Kenya was bemusingly new. It would be his home for the next 16 years. In Kenya, the childhood memoir takes on a surreal tone. On the way home from school, closed because a pair of lions are padding around the playground, Dave is mugged by baboons. Meet Dave's favourite pet Achilles, the almost indestructible dog! Find out about 'Nairobi snow' - and the national radio station that only has three records. And read about Dave and his Dad spending happy Sunday afternoons being chased by a herd of elephants. Enchantingly funny, Tick Bite Fever is a tale of the fading innocence of childhood that is miles ahead of the competition.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 256 pages

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Liked Tick Bite Fever? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Tick Bite Fever. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. It's Our Turn to Eat Shares Africa, Kenya, nonfiction
  2. The Mottled Lizard Shares Africa, Kenya, memoir
  3. Stealing Water: A Secret Life in an African City Shares Africa, memoir, nonfiction
  4. Out in the Midday Sun Shares Africa, Kenya, memoir

“People who read Tick Bite Fever tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Tropical Gangsters: One Man's Experience with Development and Decadence in Deepest Africa
  2. Chameleon Days: An American Boyhood in Ethiopia
  3. Where We Have Hope: A Memoir of Zimbabwe
  4. Karoo Boy

“If you want more of the same (humor), start with these.”

  1. I Dreamed of Africa
  2. Petals of Blood
  3. Matigari
  4. Weep Not, Child

“If it was the Africa that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. A Guide to the Beasts of East Africa
  2. Dreams in a Time of War
  3. One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir
  4. The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Code of Honor
  2. Blood and Bone
  3. The Best of Friends: Two Women, Two Continents, and One Enduring Friendship
  4. Almost Human: A Journey into the World of Baboons