View cart The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Collector's Edition
Alexander McCall Smith
Size: 160x240mm
Extent: 224pp, illustrated throughout
Price: £40.00 (special price for a limited time only!)
ISBN: 9781846970610
'The author's prose has the merits of simplicity, euphony and precision. His descriptions leave one as if standing in the Botswana landscape. This is art that conceals art. I haven't read anything with such unalloyed pleasure for a long time.' — Anthony Daniels, The Sunday Telegraph
'There is something almost divinely appealing about the way Alexander McCall Smith writes about daily life in Botswana... It is hard to think of a contemporary writer most genuinely engaging.' — Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday
'The most entertaining read of the year.' — The Guardian
PRECIOUS RAMOTSWE, a cheerful woman of traditional build, is the founder of Botswana’s first and only ladies’ detective agency. Here is a gentle interpretation of the detective role: solving her cases through her innate wisdom and understanding of human nature, she ‘helps people with problems in their lives’.
With a tone that is as elegant as that which is unfailingly used by his protagonist, Alexander McCall Smith tenderly unfolds a picture of life in Gaborone with a mastery of comic understatement and an evident sympathy for his subjects and their milieu. In the background of all this is Botswana, a country of vast landscapes and echoing skies, one so beautiful and entrancing that it breaks the heart.
Alexander McCall Smith is the author of numerous novels, and this prize-winning No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series has produced eight global bestsellers, and is in the course of being translated into more than 40 languages.
He is also the author of four other successful series of novels: 44 Scotland Street, Corduroy Mansions, The Sunday Philosophy Club and Portuguese Irregular Verbs. In 2004 he was presented with the Author of the Year Award at the British Book Awards and in 2007 he was appointed CBE for his services to literature.
This special limited edition of this first book in the series is beautifully crafted book and contains two-colour illustrations throughout, taking McCall Smith's best-selling novel to new heights of reading. Numbered and signed by both the author and illustrator.