Leaf Through autumn

The 10 best books to enjoy as the season changes.

HEwas out to get a chicken for lunch. But that simple act, in the village of Mochudi in Botswana, Africa, gave birth to what is arguably the most enchanting and uplifting detective series ever written.

As he celebrates the 20th anniversary of the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, multi-awardwinning Scots author Alexander Mccall Smith is enjoying the launch of the 19th book in the series, The Colours Of All The Cattle, featuring the loveable and indomitable selftaught detective Precious Ramotswe.

The books have sold more than 20 million copies in English and have been translated into 46 languages.

But affable Sandy – as he is warmly known – was not counting his chickens when he first put pen to paper and did not see his success coming.

He tells in10: “Thirty years ago I could not have seen myself being where I am today.”

The Edinburgh-based writer already had a respected career as a professor of medical law both at home and overseas when he stumbled on the idea for the first book.

It came during a stint at the University of Botswana. He remembers: “I was visiting friends and I went with them to see a lady who was giving them a chicken for lunch. She ran after the chicken, caught it, and dispatched it. She was the first seed of thought for the story.”

But she wasn’t the fully-fleshed Mma Ramotswe. He explains: “Mma Ramotswe represents a type of person I met in Botwana – resourceful, very intuitive and hardworking.

“They are the sort of people you want to sit down and have a cup of tea with.”

What started out as a short story quickly grew into a novel. But the author, who also publishes A Gathering, his personal anthology of Scottish poems, next month, admits he had no idea it would grow into a major series.

He reveals: “The first edition of the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency print run was tiny, 1,500 copies.

“I thought at the time it would be nice if they all sold. The publisher then said I should write a sequel.” It was taken up by Columbia University Press in New York, with the novels delivered in small numbers to independent book sellers in America. Word of mouth saw their popularity soar, and the rest is history. The series’ runaway success led to its creator becoming a full-time writer 16 years ago.

In 2007 he received a CBE for his services to literature, and four years later he was honoured by the President of Botswana for services through literature to the country. In 2017 he was presented with The National Arts Club of America Medal of Honor for Achievement in Literature.

But he remains humble and puts the series’ success partly down to the “integrity and decency” of both the place – Botswana – and its people. He says: “Society is presented as being constantly dysfunctional and aggressive. People get fed up with that.

“There are plenty of examples of those who lead what one would describe as good lives. Most people want kindness and courtesy and practice that.”

Human requirements, he says, are simple: “We need food and shelter to survive, we need the presence of other people and we have a great desire for love in all its forms.

“It is something that is central to human existence.”

“We also need community. The people who read the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency feel that they are members of a community.”

In his latest offering, Mma Ramotswe is thinking about “the point” of her life and giving in to pressure to stand for election to the City Council against ruthless Violet Sephotho.

She juggles her political foray with tracing the culprit in a hit and run and musing on humanity. We find her contemplating how all of us, no matter “how big and important, or small and insignificant”, share the same hopes and fears.

“If only people remembered that then they would be kinder to others – and kindness – was the most important thing there was,” she says. Exuding warmth and laced with laughter, it’s a comforting read which, two decades into the series, feels like an old friend.

Says Sandy: “When I wrote the first book I had no idea it would lead to where it has. I did not set out to do that.

“But I am tremendously grateful that it happened.”