Questions to spark discussion. Ladies No.1 detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. -

 Questions to spark discussion.

 Ladies No.1 detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith.

1.Everybody’s life is like a gold thread to which a myriad of other stories are linked,intertwined or combined to make a wonderful, colourful tapestry.

Obviously, you have to pay attention. Otherwise you’d miss a great deal.Don’t you think? Is Precious a good listener? Is she a good story-teller?

2.Some of these stories,  though,  might be tragic, might bring on sorrow which leads us to consider facts in more depth, some others might entail danger or risk. 

 We learn to live depending on others, later, others depend on us. It's the stories that other human beings share with us that complete our own story. That’s what life and living is like, would you agree?

3.The author uses lots of stories in this book to tell us about Botswana, its people and its history.

        a)Chapter 1. Look at Mme Ramotse’s first case: happy Bapetsi. Lost father found and lost again.  An imposter of a daddy.Comment on what you learn from this story, for example,  The African custom of  supporting relatives.

       b)Chapter 2 . Precious's father. Absolutely moving, poignant, his reflection on Funagalo language used down in the mine...words to tell you what to do, but not about love...Comment on the experiences he had over his life, while he was a miner, his attitude,his way of telling facts…

        c)Chapter 3. The cousin babysitter who taught Precious to count. We can sense or          smell airs of change regarding women's condition. A lesson Precious learnt about how to treat boys and men. Comment.

         d)Chapter 4. Living with the cousin and her husband.

Her first case. Disloyal employee. Her marriage to Note, the musician. He beat her and abandoned her. Pregnant but lost her baby five days after birth.

          e)Chapter 5.The setting up of the agency and the missing husband.

Comment on the end of this chapter.

4. Is there any other story or case that drew your attention? Why?

5.Which is her most important case? Is it the one that is solved in between other cases? The one about the missing child? What’s the story underneath?

6.Who is your favourite character? Why?

7.A good secondary character?

8.While reading the story, we grow increasingly interested in Botswana, don’t we?

Which facts would you like to highlight about it?

I hope you've enjoyed the novel as much as I have. I’ll see you on March 18th or 21st

Rosa Serrano