My secret source of inspiration

SOME of you may have noticed that at the top of the column I often use a quotation from the work of that marvellous writer, Alexander McCall Smith, especially his long-running series of books: The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.

I also admire his Isabel Dalhousie and 44 Scotland Street series. But for me the stories of the kind, chubby detective Precious Ramotswe, her husband, the gentle mechanic Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, and her spiky assistant Grace Makutsi reveal more about the human spirit than any number of more ‘difficult’ and consciously literary novels.

Why feel so passionately about 22 novels set in Botswana, spinning stories about the lives of a small group of local people — their jokes, problems, entanglements, and ways of being happy? I’ve loved every one — yet what have they to do with the problems that come into this age? The answer is — everything.

In these tender, funny, perceptive novels the great McCall Smith demonstrates the power of imagination and proves that art has nothing to do with race, class or gender — and everything to do with the miracle of shared humanity, which can transport you to Botswana and enable you to feel you belong.

How glorious that the former Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh can so fully inhabit the soul of his female creation Mma Ramotswe and present her to all of us as a force for good in the world.

The books are full of gems to carry in your heart. Two simple examples: ‘When you are with somebody you love, the smallest, smallest things can be important, so amusing, because love transforms the world, everything’. And, ‘…that is what redeems us, that is what makes our pain and sorrow bearable — this giving of love to others, this sharing of the heart’.

I could fill this whole section with passages from these enchanting books which are imbued, above all, with a spirit of compassion, tolerance and forgiveness. I find them a joyful inspiration for this column.

Bel answers readers’ questions on emotional and relationship problems each week. Write to Bel Mooney, Daily Mail, 9 Derry Street, london W8 5HY, or email bel.mooney@dailymail.co.uk. Names are changed to protect identities. Bel reads all letters but regrets she cannot enter into personal correspondence.