August 2023

Dear Readers,

It is now twenty-five years since the first book in the Mma Ramotswe series was published. This year sees the publication of volume twenty-four in the series – a slightly longer time than normal having elapsed between the appearance of volume one and volume two. The reason for that is that when I published the first book I did not contemplate doing another. But I did, and a third, and a fourth …

I have lived with the character of Mma Ramotswe, then, for rather a long time. It does not seem like that, though: indeed, each year when I sit down to write the next book in the series, I feel that it was only yesterday that I was seated at my desk writing about how she started her agency and how Mma Makutsi more or less appointed herself as secretary.

Writing these books and seeing what happened to them has been an extraordinary and wonderful experience for me. They are, in a sense, a very long love letter to a country. I admire Botswana and its people. Mma Ramotswe may not exist, but she is typical of many people who live there and who lead their lives with the good humour and dignity are her hallmarks.

I never expected the books to achieve the wide audience that they did. When it happened, though, I was pleased because I think that there were many people who found in the character of Mma Ramotswe certain qualities that may be in rather short supply in the world today. These include kindness and forgiveness – qualities that she has in abundance and that our world so sorely needs today.

When we look around our troubled world today, it is tempting simply to despair – to shrug our shoulders and say that there is nothing can be done. Mma Ramotswe, I think, would not do that. She would point out that there is much that we can do in our ordinary lives to combat those things that distress and threaten so many people. In her own way, in her day-to-day life in Botswana, she does just that – bringing her particular mixture of sympathy and decency to bear on the problems that she tackles.

The next book in the series, From a Far and Lovely Country will be published soon. I hope that you will enjoy being once again in the company of Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi, and Mma Potokwani – not to mention Charlie and Mr J.L.B. Matekoni.

There are other books that I have recently finished that will be appearing before too long. There will be another volume in the 44 Scotland Street series, The Stellar Debut of Galactica MacFee. In this book, Olive meets her match and Irene has a particularly trying experience when she undergoes cold water therapy. I am writing a new Isabel Dalhousie novel, and I am enjoying it greatly. Professor Lettuce reappears in this volume.

I Think of You is my second collection of poetry. That has been published very recently in an edition that is made most beautiful by the inclusion of woodcut-style illustrations by Iain McIntosh.

I have various tours planned in the UK over the next, few months. I hope that we shall perhaps meet at one of the events involved in these.

Warmest wishes,

Alexander McCall Smith