From animal fables to mysterious forces residing in the landscape, this collection of stories demonstrates the wealth and variety of African folk tales and the particular magic of Africa's spiritual roots: a sense of unity with the environment. Simple, surprising, cruel and humorous, these beautifully rendered tales remain as fresh and vital as in the original African idiom.

First published in 1989 as Children of Wax, The Girl Who Married a Lion includes all but one of the original stories and features six new folk tales, an introduction by Alexander McCall Smith and a letter from the one and only Mma Ramotswe.