Laura, Jeff, and four-year-old Annabel have come to live in a remote place in Sub-Saharan Africa, where Jeff is a doctor in the local hospital. They are surrounded by poverty and hardship, and communications are almost non-existant. How will they cope? Mrs Whitelady started out as 'Welcome to Africa, Mrs Bennett', which won the Daily Telegraph/Alexander McCall Smith online serialised novel competition in 2009.