i ladies detective agency is now in its 17th volume. you also have the isabel dalhousie novels., she's very interesting because i always think there's a lot of you in there because she is mad about auden, as you are. yes. ifind it extraordinary, but i agree with isabel dalhousie on so many matters. in fact, we were in 100% agreement. i also agree with mma ramotswe. i agree with most of my characters. of course you don't have to scratch very hard to see where they get their ideas from. well, your enthusiasm for auden is well known to people who know your fiction well. what is it about auden that's always moved you? well, auden, ithink, isjust such a wonderful humane voice. i remember when i first started reading auden‘s poetry many years ago, i was so rested by it. i was struck by the stength of the ideas, the complexity of the ideas and the beauty of the language. so he's a poet who manages to say the most profound things about life in a very, very beautiful way. that is an enormous breadth, as you say. and you are a polymath in many ways because you're an academic in the medica

when the number one ladies detective agency first appeared, his heroin became an instant friend to readers4 scotland st books written as a newspaper serial. here is one of oui’ a newspaper serial. here is one of our most popular writers. welcome. why do you think your heroin became such a close and intimate friend of the reader so quickly? i think it is something to do with their gentle, understanding character. readers like to be in the company of someone they like. somebody they feel they would like to sit down in real life with and enjoy a cup of tea. i think she provided out. i think you illustrate their one of the qualities that people who know the books will recognise. plus it kind of life, the sort of a life you like to write about. it is not devoid of excitement and drama, but they are somehow domestic dramas, aren‘t they? yes, people respond quite well to that. most of us leave relatively uneventful lives. most of us the —— lead lives when nothing spectacular happens and are not constant explosions or kidnapped. we rather like to spend time in the fictional sense in those circumst