When rain clouds gather was Head's first published novel. Makhaya, a political refugee from South Africa, arrives in a village in Botswana and finds a job assisting the Englishman Gilbert, who is running an experimental farm and helping the villagers to try out new, more sustainable farming techniques. He has to overcome suspicion and a certain amount of xenophobia (according to the South African papers he's a dangerous terrorist) and he soon realises that the farming reforms have as much to do with circumventing the vested interests of the local chief as they do with overcoming the traditional prejudices of the conservative villagers. With the help of a couple of wise and subtle elders and the love of two dynamic, practical young women, he and Gilbert soon have most of the village behind them, and a showdown with the corrupt chief Matenge becomes inevitable.

The novella Maru is a kind of romantic comedy, dealing with the tricky topic of the racist treatment of indigenous San people by the Bantu Batswana. A newly-qualified primary school teacher comes to the village, a poised and stylish young woman called Margaret who is soon being pursued by Maru and Moleka, the two most distinguished young bachelors in town. Except that Margaret doesn't allow anyone to make the convenient assumption that she is mixed-race: she stands up proudly and says "I am a Masarwa" (Head deliberately makes her use the same offensive term that the villagers would use of her). Maru and Moleka both have San slaves working in their households and herding their cattle, so this leads to a certain amount of social awkwardness...

Both of these books sometimes feel a little bit didactic: characters have a tendency to pause in the middle of the action and give us little lectures on politics, history or agriculture. But there's also plenty of humour, some interesting offbeat characters, and couple of splendid goats who upstage everyone else whenever they appear. And a message that ordinary people can and must fight back against prejudice, privilege and conservatism, and that love, human decency and a sense of humour will get us a long way on that road. ( )