Alexander McCall Smith

Years ago I worked for London Libraries (across the London Borough of Waltham Forest). During this time I noticed that there seemed to be a craze for slim paperback books with brightly coloured covers by an author I had never heard of- Alexander McCall Smith. During this time I was a student and could barely be bothered to read my textbooks, let alone added reading for "pleasure" so I left these books well alone although I was intrigued. Fast forward about 9 years to me underground at Bank Station where I saw a poster for Corduroy Mansions by the same author. Again I was intrigued and decided to give it a go. Turns out it was a bloody good book- not particularly mind blowing plots but a nice, well written and cute book.

So then I decided to give the Number One Ladies Detective Agency a go. This series follows a traditional Batswana woman named Precious who starts up her own Detective Agency. I'm only 3 books in out of 12 but I do love them. They give a good insight into African life (the nicer side than what is generally reported in western media) and also into human behaviours and relationships. I think McCall Smith is a very good and different author and would definitely recommend. His new book from the Detective series "The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party" came out today:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Saturday-Big-Tent-Wedding-Party/dp/1408702584/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299170550&sr=8-1