The Complete No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series

Alexander McCall Smith's runaway best-selling No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels have now sold over 10million copies, but when the first book was published in 1998, they were not the instant success many believe. Edinburgh publishers Polygon (then part of EUP but now part of Birlinn) took on the Botswana-set novels from legal academic McCall Smith, little realising who big they would become.

The stories, featuring 'traditionally built' Mma. Precious Ramotswe, are as much about the people and landscape of Botswana, in southern Africa, as they are about the crimes themselves. Alexander McCall Smith continues to write for the popular series, including a children's novel set in Precious Ramotswe's school days called Precious and the Monkeys. This novel was first published in a Scots translation by James Robertson called Precious and the Puggies.

A film and TV series based on the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency was produced in 2009, staring Jill Scott as Mma. Ramotswe.