News & Reviews

Laura Franz-Kamissoko reviews the latest book in the series...

While Alexander McCall-Smith (AMS) never fails to disappoint, there just seems to be more going on in some of his Mma Ramotswe novels than others.

The birth of Christianity, nearly 2000 years ago, has shaped the whole course of human history. Yet historians still cannot explain how it all really began. What made Jesus’s followers claim to have seen him alive again, three days after his crucifixion? Why did Christianity take off so quickly?

It is one of the biggest and most profound of all historical mysteries. This extraordinary book, based on seven years of secret research by a brilliant historian, finally provides the answer.

Lesley Pearse has always been a storyteller. From a young age she often found herself in trouble for embellishing the truth. But she came to writing quite accidentally, when she wrote a letter to a women’s magazine in the UK about the contents of her fridge. It was picked as the letter of the week, she was sent twenty five pounds, and Lesley then realised that she could earn money writing. However, her rise to fame was not an overnight success; in fact it took seven years for Lesley’s first novel, Georgia, to be published.

But Lesley is not your typical author.

Set in Cape Town, the main character is Jason Brydon - "Jase" to his friends. The downsides for Jason: he hates his job as a paint salesman almost as much as he hates his boss, his credit card is maxed out, his dad is an alcoholic and he doesn’t wish to talk about his sister. And to top it all off he is looking for the perfect woman to be at the side of the “Jasonator”. But all is not going as well as it should…

Jason decides that his life will turn around if he sets some New Year’s resolutions…one of them being to get 250 friends on Facebook.