Date Published: 1st October 2022
| Earlier this month the world celebrated International Literacy Day and it was also National Read a Book Day! As a special treat, Alexander McCall Smith wrote the poem below about the magic of storytelling. |
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| Then somebody told a story. . . |
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Gathered around in the firelight
Of some darkened cave, shadowy
But comfortable when compared
With what was lurking outside,
Our rough ancestors told each other
Stories of the hunt, exaggerated, perhaps,
Their encounter with some angry mammoth,
Or desirable deer; the brighter ones
Decided to record the hunt on the walls,
And so stories found a stone page
On which to be written, or drawn,
And literature was born.Not all that many millennia intervened
Before clay at first and then papyrus
Did the job that cave walls had done;
Now there was more to write about,
And the plot widened beyond
The inventory of the hunt;
Some imaginative person thought
Of making things up when reality
Proved a bit dull; that was the birth
Of fiction, and stories of love
And human striving and ancient wars
Became all the rage, committed to memory,
Told by story tellers with a good recall
Of who did what and why,
Even if all of it was pure invention.
Homer was probably a committee,
But that made no difference:
People loved to listen.And still we do, in spite of all distractions,
We love our stories, use them to pass to children
Things they need to learn,
Tell them in order persuade them,
And us as well, if we are honest,
Not to be so afraid of the dark
Or of oneself; give them a new twist,
A fresh coat of facts, and occasionally
Happier endings. Our appetite for stories
Is still there, and helps us through
Moments of life that might be uncomfortably
Close to the tales of peril we spin;
No matter, stories comfort and entertain,
Instruct and console, then, now, always.
 Get a sneak peek of the new book! |
| To celebrate the release of the next book in The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series, you can now read the first two chapters of A Song of Comfortable Chairs on the website.
In this new adventure Mma Makutsi is approached by an old friend who has a troubled son. Grace and Phuti agree to lend a hand, but the boy proves difficult to reach, and the situation is more than they can handle on their own. It will require not only all of their patience and dedication, but also the help of Mma Ramotswe and the formidable Mma Potokwani in order to help the child.
Faced with more than her fair share of domestic problems, Mma Makutsi deals with it all with her usual grace. That, along with the kindness, generosity, and good sense that the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency is known for, assure us that in the end, all these matters will be set right.
Out now in hardback and ebook |
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