The Many Worlds of Alexander McCall Smith

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Alexander McCall Smith

Born: 1948, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)
First Book: The White Hippo (Hamish Hamilton, 1980)
Awards: The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency received two 1998 Booker Prize for Fiction Judges’ Special Recommendations and was voted as one of The Times Literary Supplement’s International Books of the Year and the Millennium. The Full Cupboard of Life was winner of the 2003 Saga Wit Award. In 2004 McCall Smith was named 'Author of the Year’ by both the Booksellers Association and British Book Awards, and in 2007 he was awarded the CBE for services to literature.

Most widely celebrated as the creator of the Botswanan sleuth, Precious Ramotswe of The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, Alexander McCall Smith is the bestselling author of over sixty books ranging from reference works such as The Forensic Aspects of Sleep to his immensely popular children’s titles, short-story collections and novels.

Born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1948, McCall Smith was educated in Bulawayo before moving to Scotland to study law at the University of Edinburgh. He returned to Africa to set up and teach at the law faculty at the University of Botswana before returning to Edinburgh.

He was, until 2005, a professor of medical law at the University of Edinburgh, but gave up the position to concentrate on his writing and now writes full time.

The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series now numbers a total of eleven books (The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Tears of the Giraffe, Morality for Beautiful Girls, The Kalahari Typing School for Men, The Full Cupboard of Life, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, Blue Shoes and Happiness, The Good Husband of Zebra Drive, The Miracle at Speedy Motors, The Double Comfort Safari Club and The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party). The series has sold over 20 million copies in the English language worldwide, has been translated into forty-six languages and has been turned into a hugely successful television series on both sides of the Atlantic. His latest book, Precious and the Monkeys, tells the story of Precious Ramotswe as a child and her very first case.

Alexander has also written the Introduction to Mma Ramotswe’s Cookbook, a sumptuous journey through the food of Botswana in the company of Precious Ramotswe, written by Stuart Brown and available from Polygon.

His 44 Scotland Street series, which appears in daily episodes in the Scotsman newspaper and is published in full by Polygon, has also been enjoying considerable success. The light-hearted series concerns itself with the comings and goings of an eclectic group of Edinburgh residents and has received wide critical acclaim. There are six books to date: 44 Scotland Street, Espresso Tales, Love Over Scotland, The World According to Bertie, The Unbearable Lightness of Scones and The Importance of Being Seven with a seventh – Bertie Plays the Blues - due to be published in July 2011 by Polygon.

The Sunday Philosophy Club series features the half-American, half-Scottish Isabel Dalhousie, editor of The Review of Applied Ethics and amateur Edinburgh sleuth. Much like Precious Ramotswe, she often entangles herself in problems that are none of her business – including murder, love and sedition – and which put to good use her philosophical brilliance. The series is made up of The Sunday Philosophy Club; Friends, Lovers, Chocolate; The Right Attitude to Rain; The Careful Use of Compliments, The Comfort of Saturdays. The Forgotten Affairs of Youth will be published in September.

In The von Igelfeld series, McCall Smith introduces the unnaturally tall Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld of the Institute of Romance Philology, who is engaged in a comical, never-ending mission to win the respect that he is convinced he is due from others. The original trilogy of books –Portuguese Irregular Verbs, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs and The Villa of Reduced Circumstances – is now published in one volume, The 2½ Pillars of Wisdom. And a new title, Unusual Issues for Olive Oil, will be published in November.

Alexander McCall Smith lives in Edinburgh with his wife Elizabeth. They are both members of the Really Terrible Orchestra, in which he plays the bassoon.

Find out more about the many wonderful worlds of Alexander McCall Smith at www.alexandermccallsmithbooks.co.uk and view some interviews with Alexander courtesy of Penn State PBS here.

Picture by Chris Watt.

The Sun Shines for Precious and Alexander
17 March 09

Brand new series of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency on BBC One

Alexander McCall Smith

The Sun Shines for Precious and Alexander 17 March 09

New on-line fiction from Alexander McCall Smith 05 September 08

Download 44 Scotland Street walking trail 04 August 08

The Story So Far . . . by Alexander McCall Smith 24 October 07

The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency Limited Edition 27 September 07

A new extract from The World According to Bertie! 30 August 07

Read an extract from The World According to Bertie 23 July 07

07 March 12

Alexander McCall Smith, Oundle Festival

08 March 12

Alexander McCall Smith, Essex Book Festival

10 March 12

Alexander McCall Smith, BathLitFest

12 March 12

Alexander McCall Smith, Aye Write!

Bertie Plays the Blues

Bertie Plays the Blues

Conspiracy of Friends, A

Conspiracy of Friends, A

Dog Who Came in From the Cold, The

Dog Who Came in From the Cold, The

Importance of Being Seven, The

La's Orchestra Saves the World

Love Over Scotland - SIGNED

No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, The

Precious and the Monkeys

Precious and the Monkeys

Unbearable Lightness of Scones, The

The Sun Shines for Precious and Alexander
17 March 09

New on-line fiction from Alexander McCall Smith
05 September 08

Download 44 Scotland Street walking trail
04 August 08

The Story So Far . . . by Alexander McCall Smith
24 October 07

The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency Limited Edition
27 September 07

A new extract from The World According to Bertie!
30 August 07

Read an extract from The World According to Bertie
23 July 07