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Book Summary and Reviews of The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander Mccall Smith

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander Mccall Smith

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party

The New No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Novel

by Alexander Mccall Smith

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  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • Published:
  • Mar 2011, 256 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Precious Ramotswe is haunted by a dream in which she is driving her dear old white van. Grace Makutsi dreams that her 97 percent on the Botswana Secre­tarial College exam was a mistake. When Mma Ra­motswe discovers that her van is actually still in use (and, of course, sets out to retrieve it), Mma Makutsi wonders whether her dream will turn out to be pro­phetic as well.

They can only wait and see, but, in the meantime, one of Phuti Radiphuti's apprentices has gotten a girl pregnant and, under pressure to marry her, has run away. Naturally, it is up to Precious and Grace to help the couple work things out. In other developments, Mma Ramotswe investigates a case of rural jealousy in which cattle are being poisoned. Add to the mix Violet Sephotho's newly begun, already unstoppable run for the Botswana Parliament and the possibility that wedding bells may finally ring for Phuti Ra­diphuti and Grace Makutsi - whose love for each other is as great as their love for Botswana - and we have a charming and delightful tale in the inimitable style of Alexander McCall Smith.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"A no-brainer for mystery fans." - Library Journal

"Irresistible." - The New York Times Book Review

"Utterly charming and compulsively readable." - Newsweek

"Endearing, amusing...Sparkles with African sunshine and wit." - The Dallas Morning News

This information about The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Cloggie Downunder

Mma Ramotswe makes you feel good again!
The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party is the twelfth book in Alexander McCall Smith’s No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. Mma Ramotswe has plenty to keep her busy as someone is killing cattle on a southern cattle-post, Charlie the apprentice seems to have fathered twins and Grace Makutsi’s wedding to Phuti Radiphuti is fast approaching. She also has to wonder if she is seeing a ghost when her tiny white van makes an appearance. Mma Makutsi is faced with a shoe dilemma and shows her usual indignance at Violet Sephotho’s latest antics: standing for election. Clovis Anderson’s Principles of Private Detection is freely quoted (where can I get hold of a copy?) and Mma Ramotse manages to resolve the issues, big and small, in time for Grace to (finally!) get married. This audio edition is (once again) beautifully read by Adjoa Andoh (takes me back to kindergarten story time…..). Truly a delight to listen to, it will leave the reader feeling good.

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Author Information

Alexander Mccall Smith Author Biography

Alexander McCall Smith began the now highly successful 'No 1 Ladies Detective Agency' series in 1996, after being inspired by the sight of a 'traditionally built' Botswanan lady chasing down a chicken for a meal. The first book in the series - 'The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency' was published in the UK in 1998 but didn't arrive in the USA until 2001.

Known to his friends as Sandy, McCall Smith describes the Botswanans as 'genuinely courteous people' He knows Botswana well as he grew up there and also spent several years on the law faculty of the University of Botswana; his volume on the legal system of Botswana (The Criminal Law of Botswana) remains the definitive and in fact, only book on the subject.

In 2004 he published the first in a...

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