The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party (2011) (edit title/settings)

Summary edit

Write a summary of the plot or a synopsis of this book.

Characters edit see section history

• Mma Ramotswe: A "traditionally-built" woman who runs the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.
• Grace Makutsi: Mma Ramotswe's rather eccentric assistant. Engaged to Phuti.
• Charlie: One of the mechanics who works for Mma Ramotswe's husband.
• Mr J. L. B. Matekoni: Mma Ramotswe's husband, who owns the car shop next door to the detective agency.
• Mr. Botsalo Moeti: Mma Ramotswe's client, a wealthy cattle owner.
• Mma Potokwani: Kind-hearted but bossy head of the local orphanage.
• Mrs. Phuti Radiphuti: Mma Makutsi's fiance.
• Mpho: boy who lives on the farm where the cattle were killed
• Patricia: Shoe saleswoman
• Charlie: One of Mr. J.B.L. Matekoni's apprentices
• Mr. Fortitude Seleo: businessman, his compamy makes cow licks, and neighbor to Motei.
• Violet Sephotho: did poorly in Botswana Secretarial School, likes money and power and men, and running for Botswana Parilament.
• Clovis Andersen: author of private investigation book that Mma Ramotswe follows.
• Obed Ramotswe: Mma Ramotswe's deceased father
• Oreeditse Modise: very short school teacher in area where Mr. Moeti lives
• Pelenomi: Mother of Mpho
• Fanwell: Mechanic who works for Mr. Maketoni
• Puso: Add a description of this character.
• Motholeli
• Phuti Edgar Radiphuti
• Leonard
• Mma Potokwane
• Daniel
• Rra Moeti

Quotes edit see section history

• “Words can make big things little, you know.”

  Mma Precious Ramotswe

• “Don't think you know all the answers, Mr. Anderson had written, and had gone on, with admirable economy, to explain why this should be so: because you don't.”

• “As she ate, Mma Makutsi could not help but remember what Mma Ramotswe had once said about telling the truth. "Not saying something can be exactly the same as telling a lie, Mma Makutsi," she had said. "There are lies you tell with your lips and lies you don't need your lips for. And once people start telling lies, then they become like spiders who weave their web about themselves. They become stuck - caught by the lies all about them. And the they can't get out of the web, no matter how hard they try." Mma Ramotswe had shaken her head in regret over thes mendacious unfortunates, and then, as an afterthought, had added, "That is well known, Mma Makutsi. That is well known."”

• “That we have the people we have in this life, rather than others, is miraculous, she thought; a miraculous gift.”

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• There were some things that one could stop, or try to stop, but it was a mistake to go through life trying to interfere in things that were beyond your control, or which were going to happen anyway, no matter what you did. A certain amount of acceptance—which was not the same thing as cowardice, or indifference—was necessary or you would spend your life burning up with annoyance and rage.

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• She looked at him fondly; that he had been sent to her, when there were so many other, lesser men who might have been sent, was a source of constant gratitude. That we have the people we have in this life, rather than others, is miraculous, she thought; a miraculous gift.

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• So might we fail to see the real sadness that lies behind the acts of others; so might we look at one of our fellow men going about his business and not know of the sorrow that he is feeling, the effort that he is making, the things that he has lost.

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• each of us needed to find just the right way to take our mind off our problems, and it did not matter what that was—a drive in the country, an expedition to a shoe shop, a quiet cup of tea under a cloudless sky; each of us had something that made it easier to continue in a world that sometimes, just sometimes, was not as we might wish it to be.

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• This made her think: those who have a great deal to complain about are so often silent in their suffering, while those who have little to be dissatisfied with are frequently highly vocal about it.

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• It was a gesture, she thought, of unequivocal pleasure—pleasure at hearing what all of us wanted to hear at least occasionally: that there was somebody who liked us, whatever our faults, and liked us sufficiently to say so.

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• We cannot always stop the things we do not like. She knew now what he meant, of course—that nature had to be left to take its course—but she had realised that there was a far greater truth there too.

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• Memories of that which we have lost are curious things—weeks, months, even years may pass without any recollection of them and then, quite suddenly, something will remind us of a lost friend, or of a favourite possession that has been mislaid or destroyed, and then we will think: Yes, that is what I had and I have no longer.

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• all those things that sound so right were often just poetry, really—the gravy we put on reality to make it taste a bit better.

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• Nowadays, people were always thinking of getting somewhere—they travelled around far more, rushing from here to there and then back again. She would never let her life go that way; she would always take the time to drink tea, to look at the sky, and to talk. What else was there to do? Make money? Why? Did money bring any greater happiness than that furnished by a well-made cup of red bush tea and a moment or two with a good friend? She thought not.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Rra
• Botswana Secretarial College
• Lobatse
• Bobonong
• Riverwalk
• Africa
• Tlokweng Road
• Mochudi

First Sentence edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by The Double Comfort Safari Club, and followed by The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Alexander McCall Smith (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PR6063.C326 S37 2011
• Dewey: 813

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Mystery › Women Sleuths
• Books › Literature & Fiction