Strip Pan Wrinkle — David Fletcher

Strip Pan Wrinkle (in Namibia and Botswana) is an account of a five-week expedition made by Brian (of Brahmaputra fame) and his wife, Sandra, as they drive their Land Cruiser in an extended loop through Namibia, Botswana and a little bit of Zambia.

As with all of the other books in David Fletcher's ‘Brian's World' series, the account is rather more than a day-by-day diary of their trip. It is also an insight into each of the countries visited, an exploration of what wildlife one might encounter in these countries and, above all else, an exercise in humour. It isn't, therefore, a standard travelogue. Instead, with Brian's experiences â€" and his contemplations â€" chronicled in a manner which is more wry than comprehensive, it is very much an amusing travelogue.

It contains a consideration of how much our own Royal Mail is subsiding the Botswanan Post Office, an evaluation of the ugliness of the human form when compared to that of a leopard and a reflection on the efficacy of protecting rhinos by poisoning their horns with arsenic. Furthermore, there is a review of the failings of democracies and a suggestion that wild-dog dynamics might constitute a better model for the conduct of human affairs, and even an examination of the outcome of a reverse takeover of Disneyland by the Church of England. So not really a standard travelogue at all...