Alexander McCall Smith, the world-famous author of the "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series of novels set in Botswana, first visited Mokolodi in 2003 when he delighted everyone with readings from his tales of Mma Ramotswe.

Having hinted that he would like to mention Mokolodi in a future novel, we were thrilled to welcome him back again in April 2005 when he visited the park to hunt for a Mokolodi-based story to be included in the seventh novel in the series. As he was staying in Botswana for only a week we felt particularly honoured that he was able to squeeze us in between meetings with the President and Vice-President of the country.

As we have our very own story teller, Neil Whitson - the park's Operations Manager, it seemed a good idea to put the two of them together over breakfast at the Mokolodi Restaurant. The result exceeded everyone's expectations. Before Neil had barely started delving into his compendium of true Mokolodi stories, Alexander was asking if anyone had pen and paper. For the next thirty minutes, whilst egg, bacon and coffee were allowed to go cold, Mma Ramotswe's creator jotted down notes about how to catch poisonous snakes, how to avoid being set upon by ostriches with attitude, and why the Ground Hornbill is regarded as a harbinger of doom.

Having Mokolodi mentioned in a series of books that has already been published in 34 languages seemed exciting enough, but Alexander took our excitement to an even greater level when he asked Neil if he would have any objections to being included in the next book. Even Neil couldn't hide his delight.

We don't want to give away too much of the plot, so let's just say that in the book Neil Whitson will be an old friend of Mr JLB Matekoni. As they share a love of old cars, this friendship won't stretch the imagination of anyone who knows the two characters. And when Mma Ramotswe visits Mokolodi to collect some old car parts from Neil, she will unwittingly solve a little problem that seemed to have no easy solution.

Neil's rich imagination was really put to the test a couple of days later when Alexander returned with a film crew from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. They wanted to film a reconstruction of the earlier breakfast meeting. What an event that was!

Neil had so immersed himself in the world of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency characters that he had everyone believing that he had known Mr JLB Matekoni for years. Even the film crew looked bewildered when Alexander asked Neil how well he knew Mma Ramotswe.

In April 2006 we held a McCall Smith evening at Mokolodi. Sandy very kindly sent us two signed copies of "Blue Shoes and Happiness" which we auctioned to raise funds for the park.

Now that he has read the book, Neil Whitson finally believes that he is an actual character in the story.