PRECIOUS Ramotswe is “traditionally built” and anything but glamo­rous. She drives a rattle-trap white van, her favourite dish is boiled pumpkin, and her boyfriend is a middle-aged mechanic.

Sipping redbush tea behind an old typewriter in her simple office, Mma Ramotswe finds philandering husbands, missing children, and solutions to (often not very overwhel­ming) domestic problems.

As the main character in Alexander McCall Smith’s series The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, she has also brought fame to Botswana and its capital Gaborone, where her story is located.

Now comprising 10 books with more than 20 million copies sold worldwide, a film directed by the late Anthony Minghella in 2008, and a subsequent BBC series also shown in the United States and Africa, the success of Mma Ramotse had, nonetheless, simple origins.

McCall Smith remembers on his website that during a visit in Botswana, while taking a walk, “I met a woman who gave a chicken to the people with whom I was staying. I remember thinking at the time: This is a remarkable woman, I wonder what her life story is.”

Reflecting on the success of his books during a visit to Gaborone last week, Scottish author McCall Smith told the German Press Agency he also believes readers have grown tired of the stock portrayal of Africa as violen­t and corrupt.

“The normal portrayal of Africa is one of a continent in failure, but there is another side to the picture,” he said.

Indeed, Botswana is an unusual setting for a series of crime novels. Residents of the desert country usually cite common robbery and cattle rustling as the biggest security threats — Gaborone is a long way from the killing fields of Sudan or the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Instead, just over 10 years after its first publication, the story of Mma Ramotse has prompted travel providers such as Gaborone’s Africa Insight company to offer an official “No. 1 tour”.

The British-based firm Audley Travel also advertises special Botswana theme packages entitled “Delta, Desert and a Detective Agency”, that trace the footsteps of the down-to-earth detective.

It’s her upbeat attitude to life and unwavering moral compass that sets Mma Ramotse apart as a protagonist, says McCall Smith: “Mma Ramotswe is kind,” he says.

“People like to be reminded of those values, although she’s not preachy.”

Diamond-rich Botswana, for McCall Smith, is an example of a different African possibility — a place of peaceful elections, respect for the rule of law and judicious use of natural resources.

“I think, generally speaking, this is a very, very fine country and I admire the people,” says McCall Smith, who was born in Zimbabwe, is based in Scotland, and says he tries to visit Botswana at least once a year.

“I meet people who would never have given Africa a second thought, who would never have engaged with Africa, and they engage emotionally with Mma Ramotswe,” he says. “It’s reassurance.”

In between searching for a missing boy, Mma Ramotse still finds “time to take the pumpkin out of the pot”. Tracing the fate of a disappeared American, she finds herself being adopted by two children. Throughout all crimes and other “misfortunes” she keeps wondering whe­ther or not to marry Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, her mechanic.

What the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series succeeds in doing is glamourising the “quiet leading of a good life”, says McCall Smith.

In doing so, it also takes the fear factor out of Africa for people who have never visited the continent.

The combination of African sce­nery and crime stories, offering “reassurance” rather than goosebumps, also launched McCall Smith’s career as a leading — very quirky — crime writer.

Previously a professor of medical law at the University of Edinburgh, he became a full-time writer in 2005 following the success of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency and now holds several awards including the Dagger, the British Crimewriters’ Association award.

The Mma Ramotse series, which also made the New York Times Bestseller list, was followed by the 44 Scotland Street series , and the Sunday Philosophy Club series.

One of his latest works is an opera, The Okavango Macbeth, also based in Botswana, which transposes the Shakespearean tragedy to a troop of baboons.

The performance opened last week — in Gaborone’s Number One Ladies’ Opera House.

Like the original Mma Ramotse, the opera building opened in 2008 is “traditionally built” rather than grand: It’s a 70-seat, tin-roofed former garage near a railway on the outskirts of Gaborone.

During the day it serves as a restaurant.