“’Mma, I see you.’ It was the oldest and simplest of African greetings. I see you. It implied so much more than it said, though, because it meant that Mma Ramotswe saw not only the person standing before her, but all that lay behind her – who she was, where she came from, how she felt.”

A Song Of Comfortable Chairs is the twenty-third book in the No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series by popular Scottish author, Alexander McCall Smith. It opens with Precious Ramotswe considering aspects of her colleague Grace Makutsi’s behaviour that seem to signal ambition. Precious wonders if she’s about to face a coup, but Mr JLB Matekoni wisely diagnoses the sort of insecurity characteristic of someone with poverty in their past.

Grace’s husband Phuti Radiphuti’s Double Comfort Furniture Store has a serious competitor, Twenty-First Century Chairs, whose aggressive advertising campaign is fronted by her seemingly indefatigable nemesis, Violet Sepotho. Mma Ramotswe checks out their stock and returns with important intelligence. Eventually she has a clever idea that will hopefully save the business and dispel Phuti’s despondency.

That idea means that Orphan Farm matron, Mma Potokwani gets to star in an ad campaign and the photo shoot attracts not only staff of the Detective Agency and the Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, but also a large support crew from the Orphan Farm.

After a hard life with plenty of bad luck, Mma Potokwani’s newest employee, Patience finally has a chance at happiness in Gabarone with a Water Affairs man from Malawi, but her teenaged son’s jealousy and poor behaviour poses a threat to that. Mma Ramotswe comes up with a radical plan that might teach the boy to appreciate what he has.

After his first- ever visit to the dentist, Charlie is dismayed to learn what will be needed to keep his teeth from falling out. As usual, he has numerous unsatisfactory interactions with Mma Makutsi, but somehow ends up becoming a mentor to a troubled young boy.

Throughout it all, the ladies (and their men) muse on many topics: unheeded parental wisdom, the benefits of occasional consumption of unhealthy food, the proliferation of extra features on any saleable item, the demise of dining tables and plates, and the curse of phased redundancy and planned obsolescence. Tea and fruit cake often accompany these musings.

As always, McCall Smith gives the reader some minor mysteries that don’t tax the brain too much, laced with plenty of gentle philosophy, astute observations and wise words such as “If we do not forgive, then we end up carrying a big burden on our shoulders” and “We should love one another, she thought, not only because it was the right thing to do, but also because it was far easier than hating one another. People who hated often had to work quite hard at keeping their hatred warm.” Anything by this author is a guaranteed feel-good read.