Posted by: Alexander McCall Smith - Author of The Good Husband of Zebra Drive

This is Part 2 of Alexander McCall Smith’s March newsletter. You can catch up with Part 1 here.

The main book news is that volume nine in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series has now been published in the UK (and in some other countries, including Australia) and will shortly be published in the USA and Canada. The Miracle at Speedy Motors takes us back to the everyday world of Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi. There are anonymous letters flying around, and there will be no prizes for guessing who is writing them. And Mr J. L. B. Matekoni gets an idea into his head again — but Mma Ramotswe is, as usual, tolerant and understanding. Mma Makutsi continues to be engaged to Mr Phuti Radiphuti (when will they get married?).

While Mma Ramotswe leads her eventful life in Gaborone, I lead my own life here in Scotland. I am currently working on volume five in the Isabel Dalhousie series, and hope to finish that novel shortly after Easter. Volume five of the Scotland Street series has also just been finished, and will be published in hardback in the UK in July under the title The Unbearable Lightness of Scones.

In April I go to the USA for a lengthy tour (the details of which are set out below). I have just completed a German tour for my German publishers, in which I went to Munich, Berlin, Hamburg and Leipzig. Readers of the von Igelfeld series may be interested to know that in Hamburg I visited my old friend, Professor Dr Dr (honoris causa) (mult) Reinhard Zimmermann, who plays a part — as himself — in the books.

I also recently visited Paris and Madrid. In Paris I gave a talk at the American School and also in the residence of the American Ambassador. The Paris trip was organised by my American lecture agent, Steven Barclay, who does a lot to support the American School. He hosted a dinner for my wife and me, my New York agent, Robin Straus and her husband, Joseph Kanon (the novelist) and David Sedaris. Those of you who are not familiar with David’s work should look into it — he is very, very funny, even if his humour sometimes requires a strong stomach (he tells very funny stories about boils and other human difficulties).

I shall be in Botswana in June. I am involved in the setting up of a very small opera house there — the No. 1 Ladies’ Opera House. I shall write more about that in the next newsletter — in the meantime, I send you my warmest best wishes. And I hope that you enjoy The Miracle at Speedy Motors.