A Talk by Alexander McCall Smith

Alexander McCall Smith was in town a few weeks ago for a book reading and signing. He is best known for his series "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" and is on tour to promote the latest installment of the series: "Tea Time for the Traditionally Built."

McCall Smith is full of charm and dry hilarity. He kept cracking himself up while busily giving away plot points of future books. I've heard this is a big "no no" among authors, but he generously provided information on many characters. Regarding Mma Makutsi and her fiance Phuti Rhadiphuti, he acknowledged that there would be bumps in the road to the wedding. Never fear! he continued: they will get married eventually.

He went further to assure us that nothing bad would happen to any of his usual characters. In fact, he said, it could be argued that nothing actually happens in his books.

The audience at the signing was primarily white, female and grey haired. They were passionate about his books and had many questions.

He dashed one fan's search for a deep and meaningful answer when she asked him to expand on the little "lozenge" at the end of the Ladies Detective agency book:

africa
africa africa
africa africa africa
africa africa
africa

He replied very kindly that he had just been messing around with the centering tool on his computer and liked the effect.

Another fan brought up the depiction of Mma Ramotswe's vehicle in the HBO miniseries. In the book, the vehicle is referred to as "the tiny white van." In the television show, it looks like a pick-up truck. "Ah," said McCall Smith, "this is a very controversial topic." In fact, the little pick-up truck is what McCall Smith envisioned when he originally wrote the book. Unfortunately, the descriptor "pick-up" is a very regional word. A "pick-up" in the US would be a "backie" in South Africa. He decided that the word "van" would scan across English-speaking readers more easily.

I was surprised that no one delved into the topic that he is a white British man writing books from the point of view of an black African woman. I don't really have anything against it. It's not like he is taking an opportunity away from someone else--unlike theatre or television casting. People write beyond their immediate sphere of experience all of the time: hello sci-fi and fantasy.

It does make me wonder when I read the comments from critics that praise his ability to bring forth "a breath of Africa." Do these books really illustrate a representative slice of Africa and do these critics have the background to make a statements like that?

McCall Smith did say that he wanted to create something extremely positive about Africa because so much of the media about the continent focuses on poverty, warfare and disease. He certainly succeeds. He put Botswana on the map for me personally. I liked this quote from Professor Inniss' blog post about the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency TV series:

Black women of all sizes, shapes, hair styles and colors people the show, giving black women and other women of color the kind of aesthetic validation that is rarely available on Western television.

Looking forward to when the show is issued on DVD. Word has it that they are struggling to make a second season because production in Botswana is so expensive and because two of the original producers (Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack) have both died recently.