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The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (novel)
''The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency'' is the first detective novel in the eponymous series by Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith, first published in 1998. The novel introduces the Motswana Mma Precious Ramotswe, who begins the first detective agency in Botswana, in the capital city Gaborone, after her beloved father dies. She hires a secretary and solves cases for her clients. Precious tells her own story, from birth, and her father tells his story. When her father dies, she moves from Mochudi to Gaborone, the capital city, to begin her detective agency. She solves three cases, and meets important new people, her secretary Grace Makutsi and good friend, the excellent mechanic, Mr JLB Matekoni. The novel was first published in Scotland, where it gained a following. After two more novels in the series were published, all three were published in the US to much acclaim; in 2002, for example, ''Publishers Weekly'' called it a "little gem of a book". The series did not catch on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander McCall Smith
Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE (born 24 August 1948), is a British writer. He was raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and formerly Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. He became an expert on medical law and bioethics and served on related British and international committees. He has since become known as a fiction writer, with sales in English exceeding 40 million by 2010 and translations into 46 languages. He is known as the creator of ''The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency'' series. The "McCall" derives from his great-great-grandmother Bethea McCall, who married James Smith at Glencairn, Dumfries-shire, in 1833. Early life Alexander McCall Smith was born in 1948 in Bulawayo in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe), to British parents. He was the only son, having three elder sisters. His father worked as a public prosecutor in Bulawayo. McCall Smith's paternal grandfather was the medical doctor and New Zealand communit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snake
Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads (cranial kinesis). To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. Lizards have evolved elongate bodies without limbs or with greatly reduced limbs about twenty-five times independently via convergent evolution, leading to many lineages of legless lizards. These resemble snakes, but several common groups of legless lizards have eyelids and external ears, which snakes lack, altho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Book Club
''World Book Club'' is a radio programme on the BBC World Service. Each edition of the programme, which is broadcast on the first Saturday of the month with repeats into the following Monday, features a famous author discussing one of his or her books, often the most well-known one, with the public. Since the programme began in 2002 it has been presented by Harriett Gilbert . History ''World Book Club'' features a famous writer who answers questions submitted by the public about one of his or her books. It is usually recorded in front of a live audience. Listeners around the world can submit questions before the recording. The programme was launched at the Edinburgh Festival in 2002. The first book featured was ''Lake Wobegon Days'' by Garrison Keillor. Until November 2008 it was a half-hour programme broadcast on the last Tuesday of each month in the slot of '' The Word'', a defunct book programme whose remit was absorbed within the output of '' The Strand'', the BBC World Ser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Curtis
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis (born 8 November 1956) is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, producer and film director. One of Britain's most successful comedy screenwriters, he is known primarily for romantic comedy films, among them ''Four Weddings and a Funeral'' (1994), ''Notting Hill'' (1999), ''Bridget Jones's Diary'' (2001), ''Love Actually'' (2003), '' Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason'' (2004), '' About Time'' (2013) and '' Yesterday'' (2019). He is also known for the drama ''War Horse'' (2011) and for having co-written the sitcoms ''Blackadder'', ''Mr. Bean'' and ''The Vicar of Dibley''. His early career saw him write material for the BBC's ''Not the Nine O'Clock News'' and ITV's ''Spitting Image''. In 2007, Curtis received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He is the co-founder, with Sir Lenny Henry, of the British charity Comic Relief, which has raised over £1 billion. At the 2008 Britannia Awar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella, (6 January 195418 March 2008) was a British film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was chairman of the board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for ''The English Patient'' (1996). In addition, he received three more Academy Award nominations; he was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for both ''The English Patient'' and ''The Talented Mr. Ripley'' (1999), and was posthumously nominated for Best Picture for ''The Reader'' (2008), as a producer. Early life Minghella was born in Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, an island off the south coast of England that is a popular holiday resort. His family are well known on the Island, where they ran a café in Ryde until the 1980s and have run an eponymous business making and selling Italian-style ice cream since the 1950s. His parents were Edoardo Minghella (an Italian immigrant) and Leeds-born Gloria Alberta (née Arcari). His mother's anc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mochudi
Mochudi is one of the larger villages in Botswana with a population of 44,815 people in 2011. It is situated in the Bakgatla tribal region, in Kgatleng District, about northeast of Gaborone. The village lies several kilometres from the main Gaborone–Francistown road, and can be accessed through a short turn at Pilane. Mochudi was settled by the Tswana people in 1871. The main attraction in Mochudi is the Phuthadikobo Museum which is perched at the top of a hill and holds a rich history of Bakgatla tribe and Batswana in general. History Mochudi was established as a result of people movements. Under pressure from Boer encroachment on their historic lands, the Bakgatla tribe migrated from what is now South Africa, settling in 1871 at the foot of Phuthadikobo Hill and beside the Notwane River. At this time, the Rev Pieter Brink of the Dutch Reformed Church founded a mission station at Mochudi. Tourism The tourist destinations of note inside Mochudi are the Phuthadikobo Mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medicine Murder
Murder for body parts also known as medicine murder (not to be confused with "medical murder") refers to the killing of a human being in order to excise body parts to use as medicine or purposes in witchcraft. Medicine murder is viewed as the obtaining of an item or items from a corpse to be used in traditional medicine. Its practice occurs primarily in sub-equatorial Africa. The illegal organ trade has led to murder for body parts, because of a worldwide demand of organs for transplant and organ donors. For example, criminal organizations have engaged in kidnapping and killing people for the purpose of harvesting their organs for illegal organ trade. The extent is unknown, and non-fatal organ theft and removal is more widely reported than murder. Historically, anatomy murders took place during the earlier parts of modern Western medicine. In the 19th century, the human body was still poorly understood, and fresh cadavers for dissection and the anatomical study was sometimes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murder Of Segametsi Mogomotsi
Segametsi Mogomotsi was a 14-year-old schoolgirl who was found murdered on 6 November 1994 in Mochudi, Botswana. She went missing sometime on 5 November, and her body was found naked and mutilated in an open space the next morning. The ''dipheko'' (medicine murder) sparked protests by the students at the Radikolo Community Junior Secondary School (RCJSS), the school where she attended, as well as among the citizens of Mochudi. The protests led to riots in neighbouring Gaborone, prompting the government of Botswana to call in Scotland Yard. No one has been formally charged with the murder, and an official police report was conducted, but as of August 2012, the results have not yet been released. The murder inspired the stories in Unity Dow's novel ''The Screaming of the Innocent'', Michael Stanley's mystery ''Deadly Harvest'', and Alexander McCall Smith novel ''The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency''. Background The ritual murder of a person whose body parts are cut off to make ''mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cattle
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult males are referred to as bulls. Cattle are commonly raised as livestock for meat (beef or veal, see beef cattle), for milk (see dairy cattle), and for hides, which are used to make leather. They are used as riding animals and draft animals ( oxen or bullocks, which pull carts, plows and other implements). Another product of cattle is their dung, which can be used to create manure or fuel. In some regions, such as parts of India, cattle have significant religious significance. Cattle, mostly small breeds such as the Miniature Zebu, are also kept as pets. Different types of cattle are common to different geographic areas. Taurine cattle are found primarily in Europe and temperate areas of Asia, the Americas, and Australia. Zebus (also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crocodile
Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to include all extant taxon, extant members of the order (biology), order Crocodilia, which includes the alligators and caimans (family Alligatoridae), the gharial and false gharial (family Gavialidae) among other extinct taxa. Although they appear similar, crocodiles, alligators and the gharial belong to separate biological family (biology), families. The gharial, with its narrow snout, is easier to distinguish, while Morphology (biology), morphological differences are more difficult to spot in crocodiles and alligators. The most obvious external differences are visible in the head, with crocodiles having narrower and longer heads, with a more V-shaped than a U-shaped snout compared to alligators and caimans. Another obvious trait is that the upp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tlokweng
Tlokweng is a peri-urban settlement classified as an urban village located east of the capital of Botswana, Gaborone and falling under the jurisdiction of South East District Council. It can be considered part of the conurbation of Gaborone. Tlokweng stands on the other side of the river, and is on the road to the border with South Africa, the border post being just 15 km to the east. The population was 35,982 at the 2011 census. It is now part of Gaborone agglomeration, home to 421,907 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The tribe originating from Tlokweng is referred to as Batlokwa. Many people from across Botswana have come to seek permanent and sometimes temporary settlement in Tlokweng because of its proximity to the capital city where most jobs are. According to Asperen the settlement of Tlokweng has a dual spatial structure with a traditional unplanned area and a modern planned area. Tlokweng is surrounded by grazing and arable land use under tribal and freehold tenur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The No
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of pronoun ''thee'') when followed by a v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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