South from the Limpopo, by Dervla Murphy (Flamingo, £7.99 in UK)

There seems little else for Dervla Murphy to achieve at this stage, except to bicycle to Mars and report on conditions there. This volume, which is no mere travelogue, records a visit to South Africa (by bike, naturally) which she found a land of bewildering contrasts and contradictions. It is written largely in diary form, which makes for extra immediacy, but does not shrink from in-depth analysis. She even took in visits to some of the great battlefields, including Isandlwana where the Zulus defeated a British army. At over 500 pages long, the book offers a lot of reading and leaves a strong aftertaste.