source: The Scotsman
By DAVID ROBINSON
BOOKS EDITOR
IF YOU drive south from Gabarone, the capital of Botswana, until the houses stop and the bush begins, you'll find yourself passing a building that used to be a garage.
When Edinburgh author Alexander McCall Smith used to drive past it, he was reminded of the fictional Speedy Motors garage in his No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, which has been translated into 44 languages and sold 15 million copies in English alone.
The writer has now taken over the building, and in June it will get a new lease of life – as Botswana's first opera house.
The signs for the No 1 Ladies Opera House have already been designed by Iain McIntosh, who illustrates McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street series in The Scotsman.
A new floor has been put in, the roof repaired, the walls [continue reading]
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Anthony Daniels reviews The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith
The lost world of Mma Ramotswe
source: Telegraph UK
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 24/02/2008
Anthony Daniels reviews The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith
There are few more difficult tasks in literature than to create a character who is both morally good and interesting. In Precious Ramotswe, the traditionally built proprietress of the Number One Ladies' Detective Agency of Gaborone, Botswana, Africa, Alexander McCall Smith has succeeded triumphantly: so triumphantly, in fact, that Mma Ramotswe's favourite beverage, redbush tea, is now sold in our supermarkets.
The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith
A large part of the charm of the Mma Ramotswe books, and the [continue reading]
source: Telegraph UK
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 24/02/2008
Anthony Daniels reviews The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith
There are few more difficult tasks in literature than to create a character who is both morally good and interesting. In Precious Ramotswe, the traditionally built proprietress of the Number One Ladies' Detective Agency of Gaborone, Botswana, Africa, Alexander McCall Smith has succeeded triumphantly: so triumphantly, in fact, that Mma Ramotswe's favourite beverage, redbush tea, is now sold in our supermarkets.
The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith
A large part of the charm of the Mma Ramotswe books, and the [continue reading]
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Tourism board to use Mma Ramotswe movie set
source: Botswana Press Agency
13 February, 2008
GABORONE - The Botswana Tourism Board is negotiating with producers of the No1. Ladies Detective Agency to use the movie set for tourism purposes.
The boards public relations and communications manager Keitumetse Setlang says the producers have agreed in principle to the set being used for tourism purposes.
She said they are very optimistic that the ongoing negotiations will be successful. The set, which is nestled at the foot of the Kgale Hill, has been closed to the public except for a few authorised tours since the filming wrapped up last year.
Setlang said although no feasibility study has been done yet, it is very likely that a lot of interest will be generated once the tours of the set are commissioned. Currently there are a growing number of Mma Ramotswe tours being carried out by [continue reading]
13 February, 2008
GABORONE - The Botswana Tourism Board is negotiating with producers of the No1. Ladies Detective Agency to use the movie set for tourism purposes.
The boards public relations and communications manager Keitumetse Setlang says the producers have agreed in principle to the set being used for tourism purposes.
She said they are very optimistic that the ongoing negotiations will be successful. The set, which is nestled at the foot of the Kgale Hill, has been closed to the public except for a few authorised tours since the filming wrapped up last year.
Setlang said although no feasibility study has been done yet, it is very likely that a lot of interest will be generated once the tours of the set are commissioned. Currently there are a growing number of Mma Ramotswe tours being carried out by [continue reading]
Monday, January 21, 2008
What chance of a film industry in Botswana?
source: Mmegi
Last year saw the first production of a big drama movie in Botswana-The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, directed by the internationally-renowned Anthony Minghella.
More recently we have had news of two satellite television content-providers, SABIDO (holding company of etv) and Munhumutape Pay-TV, setting up shop in transmission or production facilities in Gaborone. Over the past 10 or 20 years, digital cameras and computer editing have dramatically opened up filmmaking possibilities in "remote" places. Things are looking up for drama films and documentaries made in Botswana.
Botswana already has one of the world's major wildlife film industries, based in Maun and Chobe. Dereck and Beverly Joubert have made prize-winning films for international television channels, and a full-length elephant drama called Whispers for Hollywood (Buena Vista). Tim and June Liversedge have rivalled them in producing wildlife documentaries, and are building on the success of their lion documentary Roar! being shown on giant Imax screens in major cities around the world.
Maun-Chobe wildlife films took off in the late 1980s, as a spin-off from safari industries moving into Botswana from East Africa. By comparison, Gaborone's film industry is small and still struggling. The oldest established Gaborone firm is Dipolelo/Storyline (Renee Gilbert & John Clement), set up in 1994, which made its name in human documentaries and is about to flight 26 half hour episodes of its drama "soapie" Lelia & Co on Botswana Television (BTV) in 2008. Two other Gaborone filmmakers, with reputations made prior to or separate from BTV, are the documentarist Billy Kokorwe and Moabi Mogorosi famous for his short drama film Hot Chillie.
The big buzz seven or eight years ago was the [continue reading]Monday, December 24, 2007
Mma Ramotswe movies due in Easter
source: Botswana Press Agency
24 December, 2007
GABORONE - The release of the Hollywood movie that was filmed in Botswana, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, has been rescheduled from Christmas Day to Easter Holidays.
The National Tourism Board says in a press statement the release date was pushed to the Easter weekend to ensure that it was adequately promoted.
This, it says, has to be done for the movie to gain maximum benefit for Botswana and for [continue reading]
24 December, 2007
GABORONE - The release of the Hollywood movie that was filmed in Botswana, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, has been rescheduled from Christmas Day to Easter Holidays.
The National Tourism Board says in a press statement the release date was pushed to the Easter weekend to ensure that it was adequately promoted.
This, it says, has to be done for the movie to gain maximum benefit for Botswana and for [continue reading]
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
BBC1 unveils new line-up
source: The Guardian
The first novel in Alexander McCall Smith's bestselling series of No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books will be transformed next year into a BBC1 drama, it was announced yesterday. A one-off 90-minute television film of the book will be a key part of the 2008 winter season, which will also include a new version of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.
The eight books in McCall Smith's Ladies Detective Agency series - which follows Botswana-based private investigator Precious Ramotswe - have sold more than 14m copies worldwide and have been translated into 39 languages. If the television version of the first book is successful, more adaptations from the series - which first hit bookshelves in 1998 - could follow, BBC1 said.
Singer Jill Scott will take the lead role of Precious, with Anika Noni Rose as Mma Makutsi and Lucian Msamati as JLB Matekoni.
The drama, which BBC1 bills as "poignant and amusing", will be directed and written by Anthony Minghella - who directed the Oscar winning film the English Patient - and co-written by Richard Curtis, who is [continue reading]
The first novel in Alexander McCall Smith's bestselling series of No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books will be transformed next year into a BBC1 drama, it was announced yesterday. A one-off 90-minute television film of the book will be a key part of the 2008 winter season, which will also include a new version of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.
The eight books in McCall Smith's Ladies Detective Agency series - which follows Botswana-based private investigator Precious Ramotswe - have sold more than 14m copies worldwide and have been translated into 39 languages. If the television version of the first book is successful, more adaptations from the series - which first hit bookshelves in 1998 - could follow, BBC1 said.
Singer Jill Scott will take the lead role of Precious, with Anika Noni Rose as Mma Makutsi and Lucian Msamati as JLB Matekoni.
The drama, which BBC1 bills as "poignant and amusing", will be directed and written by Anthony Minghella - who directed the Oscar winning film the English Patient - and co-written by Richard Curtis, who is [continue reading]
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