Alexander McCall Smith

Naisten etsivätoimisto nro 1 pistää jälleen kaiken nokkeluutensa peliin pulmatilanteen edessä.Laatuun ja mukavuuteen panostava huonekalumyyjä saa kilpailijakseen suuryrityksen, jonka myyntivaltti on alhaiset hinnat. Mma Ramotswe tulee kuitenkin hätiin ja auttaa panemaan pystyyn kampanjan, joka saa suuryrityksenkin varpailleen. Samaan aikaan Mma Makutsin hienotunteisuutta ja kärsivällisyyttä tarvitaan, kun vanhan ystävän poika joutuu vaikeuksiin. Etsivätoimistolla on kädet täynnä töitä, mutta aikaa jää myös polveilevalle keskustelulle ja lukuisille rooibosteekupillisille - ja juuri näiden eväiden avulla ratkaisut kiperiin pulmiin hiljalleen löytyvät.

Rakastetussa hyvänmielen dekkarisarjassa seurataan botswanalaisen etsivätoimiston hersyvää arkea.Amerikkalainen nainen lähestyy Mma Ramotswea ja pyytää apua: hän etsii sukulaisiaan. Nainen muistaa edesmenneen isoisänsä tarinoista vain joitain yksityiskohtia ja satunnaisia nimiä. Se ei ole paljon, mutta jos joku voi auttaa, se on takuulla Mma Ramotswe ja Naisten etsivätoimisto.Samaan aikaan Charlie johtaa ensimmäistä omaa tutkintaansa. Hän soluttautuu epäilyttävään tapaamiseen, jossa naimisissa olevia miehiä rohkaistaan esiintymään sinkkuina ja lähestymään naisia väärin perustein. Kuka voi olla näin vastenmielisen toiminnan takana?

Naisten etsivätoimisto ratkoo rikoksia suurella sydämellä ja viisaudella. Gaboronen liepeillä, kumpuilevien kukkuloiden ja akaasiapuiden keskellä sijaitsee loistelias hotelli. Sen uskollinen henkilökunta on jo vuosien ajan tarjonnut levähdyspaikan väsyneille matkailijoille, mutta nyt epäonnisten tapahtumien sarja uhkaa pilata hotellin maineen. Ikävät sattumukset seuraavat toisiaan, kunnes alkaa vaikuttaa siltä, että joku sabotoi hotellia tarkoituksella. Etsivät Mma Ramotswe ja Mma Makutsi ryhtyvät selvittämään, kuka on vastuussa. Voiko hotellin maineen vielä palauttaa? Yleensä vaikeimmatkin tilanteet voi ratkaista rehellisyydellä ja myötätunnolla. Ja kupillisella rooibosteetä.

â??It's comfort reading at its most soothingâ?? Independent â??Funny, heartfelt and very readableâ?? Good Housekeeping

Hur har idén om frihet utvecklats och förändrats under århundradena? Vad betyder frihet idag och vad behöver vi göra för att behålla de friheter som generationer män och kvinnor har kämpat, och till och med dött, för? Frihet är en grundförutsättning för att ett samhälle ska frodas och utvecklas. Dess historia är brokig: mänsklighetens eviga kamp mot ödet, våra förfäder som outtröttligt stred för att upprätta tanke- och religionsfrihet, demokratiska friheter i samhället i stort och kampen mot auktoritära regimer och tyranner världen över. I denna essäsamling utforskar ledande akademiker, författare och historiker vad frihet har betytt genom tiderna. De reflekterar över detta ständigt pågående drama och varför vi så villigt offrar oss för friheten när den hotas.

To find out where we are going, we sometimes need to find out where we came from. Sister Maria-Fiore dei Fiori Montagna, who is suffering from an acute identity crisis, wants to know more about her own past, and after doing a DNA test, she discovers that she has a relative she didn’t know about. But her newfound family causes a bit of a rift between her and her flatmate, Antonia Collie. Can they work out their differences? Bertie’s dream of moving to the promised land – the Dear Green Place – comes crashing down as he learns that he is to move to the far northeast – Peterhead, near Aberdeen, leaving poor Ranald Braveheart Macpherson a little heartbroken and lost. Will the boys ever be reunited in the Georgian splendour of New Town Edinburgh? And for Bruce, it’s a case of history repeating itself. After getting all the attention he craves – landing a starring role in a new television series – the universe has one way of putting him in his place. Even in modern Scotland, lurking Calvinist tendencies might still strike.

Book 18 in the hugely popular 44 Scotland Street series by worldwide bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith "It's like ice cream, Mr Flynn," Bertie continued. "When you have ice cream, you need to eat it straight away, otherwise it melts. If there are people who haven't got any, you should share it, if you can." When despair for the world grows, Bertie's theory of ice cream reminds us that it's the simple pleasures in life that we should hold onto. And everyone's favourite seven-year-old has a lot to put up with: at home, Irene is planning lessons on Irish Culture for Bertie; at school, he is forced to join Olive and Pansy's book group, and during a day out with his best friend Ranald Braveheart Macpherson, the boys find themselves unexpectedly invited to a wedding. Meanwhile, Bruce's latest property venture goes horribly wrong after trying to move a flat's front door to give it a more prestigious address. At Nine Mile Burn, Matthew and the triplets try to adopt an unwillingly-vegan dog. And Sister Maria-Fiori dei Fiore Montagna discovers the missing part of the Stone of Scone in Drummond Place Gardens. Filled with Alexander McCall Smith's trademark warmth and humour, this latest book in the series is a must-read.

Rakastetussa hyvänmielen dekkarisarjassa seurataan botswanalaisen etsivätoimiston hersyvää arkea. Amerikkalainen nainen lähestyy Mma Ramotswea ja pyytää apua: hän etsii sukulaisiaan. Nainen muistaa edesmenneen isoisänsä tarinoista vain joitain yksityiskohtia ja satunnaisia nimiä. Se ei ole paljon, mutta jos joku voi auttaa, se on takuulla Mma Ramotswe ja Naisten etsivätoimisto. Samaan aikaan Charlie johtaa ensimmäistä omaa tutkintaansa. Hän soluttautuu epäilyttävään tapaamiseen, jossa naimisissa olevia miehiä rohkaistaan esiintymään sinkkuina ja lähestymään naisia väärin perustein. Kuka voi olla näin vastenmielisen toiminnan takana?

Featured on BBC Radio 4's Take Four Books Six friends. One city. The time of their lives. It’s 1988, and on the verge of a reunion with friends she hasn’t seen since graduation, Julie recalls her halcyon student days of 1984 and the strange tumultuous time they lived through. The friends – each from a very different background – are living in a gorgeous terraced flat in their Edinburgh idyll. As they navigate relationships and the unspoken rules of flat sharing, the troubled world all around them seems rather distant. But in the nearby hometown of one of the flatmates, the Miners' Strike is bringing about a huge political shift. Despite their differences, can these six strangers help each other see the world from a different perspective? Is there such a thing as being too close? And what are the limits of love between friends?

The latest book in the beloved Isabel Dalhousie series The surface of Isabel Dalhousie's life is usually a tranquil one. From her house in Edinburgh she edits a philosophical journal. In the background is her long-time housekeeper, Grace, her handsome husband, Jamie, and her two small boys, Charlie and Magnus. Outside, under the cover of the rhododendron bushes, lives Brother Fox, who, with his dark, vulpine eyes, takes a great interest in what is happening around him. And yet, in the middle of this rather idyllic setting, things are happening. Jamie, a bassoonist, has been invited to play in a prestigious London concert and to make a recording for a prominent classical label. This invitation, though, comes from a scheming woman who finds him particularly charming. Alarm bells ring. And they ring too when a wily philosopher, Christopher Dove, reveals a plot to topple Professor Robert Lettuce, a member of Isabel's editorial board. Could Isabel's life get more complicated? Yes. A woman she knew many years ago at school approaches her with a request for help. She has made an awkward discovery as a result of taking a DNA test. Can Isabel prevent the information obtained from this test from causing real harm to a whole family? If anybody can do that, it is Isabel Dalhousie. And she does that with tact and, most importantly, the grace that we have come to know as her hallmark quality.

In this beguiling book, Alexander McCall Smith casts his eye over five chanced-upon photographs from the era of black-and-white photography and imagines the stories behind them. Who were those people, what were their stories, why are they smiling, what made them sad? What emerges are surprising and poignant tales of love and friendship in a variety of settings - an estate in the Highlands of Scotland, a travelling circus in Canada, an Australian gold-mining town, a village in Ireland, and the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. Some will find joy and fulfilment - others would prefer happier endings.Each of them, though, will find love, and that is ultimately what matters.

In Pianos and Flowers we are invited to glimpse a world long departed. In these stories, inspired by long-lost photographs, the lives of the people in the frame are imagined and then explored, layer by layer. Three sisters brought up in Penang, caught in the tide of war. A group of small boys in a Glasgow slum – their childhood blighted by poverty, their adult lives taking very different paths. A young woman’s search for love in the unlikely realm of Egyptian antiquities. And through all of these photographs, and all of these stories, there runs the same refrain: the possibilities of love, of friendship, of happiness lie before us.

A poet’s skill lies in their ability to distil complex themes into a few paragraphs; to pick out the fundamental quality in people that make us unique; they can describe nature in a way that makes us see its majesty. The poet traverses contents and political divides; they help us understand where we have come from which in turn allows us to figure out where we are going. And no one does this better than Alexander McCall Smith. He has brought – through his novels – many wonderful characters to vivid life and entertained readers all over the globe. And in his third collection of poetry, he guides the reader by the hand and takes them through time and place exploring the majestic themes of nature and the complexities of relationships and what it is that makes us human with his trademark warmth and humour.

What if you met the person you were destined to be with? And what if you never saw them again . . . ? There’s a new case for the Perfect Passion Company. After a serendipitous meeting in a supermarket, Clea meets the man of her dreams. But having left suddenly without his phone number, she can’t stop thinking about what might have been. Can apprentice matchmaker Katie, with the help of her enigmatic neighbour William, help orchestrate the forces of Kismet and choreograph another happy union? And now that the newly single William’s engagement is off, can Katie seize the moment to tell him how she feels before her chance has gone forever?