Alexander McCall Smith


Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE, is a British-Zimbabwean writer and Emeritus Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. In the late 20th century, McCall Smith became a respected expert on medical law and bioethics and served on British and international committees concerned with these issues.
He has since become internationally known as a writer of fiction, with sales of English-language versions exceeding 40 million by 2010 and translations into 46 languages. He is most widely known as the creator of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. "McCall" is not a middle name: his two-part surname is "McCall Smith".

Early life

Alexander McCall Smith was born in Bulawayo in 1948 to parents of British origin in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia, the youngest of four children. His father worked as a public prosecutor in Bulawayo. McCall Smith was educated at the Christian Brothers College in Bulawayo before moving to Scotland at age 17 to study law at the University of Edinburgh, where he earned his LLB and PhD degrees. He soon taught at Queen's University Belfast, and while teaching there he entered a literary competition: one a children's book and the other a novel for adults. He won in the children's category.

Professional career

He returned to southern Africa in 1981 to help co-found the law school and teach law at the University of Botswana. While there, he co-wrote The Criminal Law of Botswana.
He was Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh and is now Emeritus Professor at its School of Law. He retains a further involvement with the University in relation to the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
He is the former chairman of the Ethics Committee of the British Medical Journal, the former vice-chairman of the Human Genetics Commission of the United Kingdom, and a former member of the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO. After achieving success as a writer, he gave up these commitments. He was appointed a CBE in the New Year's Honours List issued at the end of December 2006 for services to literature. In June 2007, he was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws at a ceremony celebrating the tercentenary of the University of Edinburgh School of Law. In June 2015 he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters at a graduation ceremony at the University of St Andrews.

Personal life

He settled in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1984. He and his wife Elizabeth, a physician, bought and renovated a large Victorian mansion in the Merchiston/Morningside area of the city. They lived there for almost 30 years, raising their two daughters Lucy and Emily. Nearby lived the authors J. K. Rowling, Ian Rankin, and Kate Atkinson.
An amateur bassoonist, he co-founded The Really Terrible Orchestra. He has helped to found Botswana's first centre for opera training, the Number 1 Ladies' Opera House, for whom he wrote the libretto of their first production, a version of Macbeth set among a troop of baboons in the Okavango Delta.
In 2012 he appeared in a documentary about the life and work of author W. Somerset Maugham, Revealing Mr. Maugham.
In 2014 McCall Smith purchased the Cairns of Coll, a chain of uninhabited islets in the Hebrides. He said, "I intend to do absolutely nothing with them, and to ensure that, after I am gone, they are held in trust, unspoilt and uninhabited, for the nation. I want them kept in perpetuity as a sanctuary for wildlife – for birds and seals and all the other creatures to which they are home.”
During a visit to New Zealand in 2014 McCall Smith visited Rawene, where his grandfather, George McCall Smith, ran the hospital for 34 years and created the Hokianga area health service.

Author

McCall Smith is a prolific author of fiction, with several series to his credit. He writes at a prodigious rate: "Even when travelling, he never loses a day, turning out between 2,000 and 3,000 words – but more like 5,000 words when at home in Edinburgh. His usual rate is 1,000 words an hour." He has gained the most fame for his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, featuring Mma Precious Ramotswe and set in Gaborone, Botswana. The first novel was published in 1998. By 2009, the No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series had sold more than 20 million copies in English editions.
According to his publisher in 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."
He published 30 books in the 1980s and 1990s before he began the series that has brought him the world's notice. In 2008 he wrote a serialised online novel Corduroy Mansions, with the audio edition read by Andrew Sachs made available at the same pace as the daily publication. He wrote more than ten chapters ahead of publication, finding the experience of serialised publication to be "a frightening thing to create a novel while his readers watched. 'I am like a man on a tightrope.'"
In 2009 he donated the short story "Still Life" to Oxfam's "Ox-Tales" project, comprising four collections of stories written by 38 British authors. McCall Smith's story was published in the "Air" collection.

''The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency'' series

  1. 1998: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
  2. 2000: Tears of the Giraffe
  3. 2001: Morality for Beautiful Girls
  4. 2002: The Kalahari Typing School for Men
  5. 2003: The Full Cupboard of Life
  6. 2004: In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
  7. 2006: Blue Shoes and Happiness
  8. 2007: The Good Husband of Zebra Drive
  9. 2008: The Miracle at Speedy Motors
  10. 2009: Tea Time for the Traditionally Built
  11. 2010: The Double Comfort Safari Club
  12. 2011: The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party
  13. 2012: The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection
  14. 2013: The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon
  15. 2014: The Handsome Man's De Luxe Café
  16. 2015: The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine
  17. 2016: Precious and Grace
  18. 2017: The House of Unexpected Sisters
  19. 2018: The Colours of All the Cattle
  20. 2019: To the Land of Long Lost Friends
  21. 2020: How to Raise an Elephant
Extra: 2013: The Slice of No. 1 Celebration Storybook

''44 Scotland Street'' series

  1. 2005: 44 Scotland Street
  2. 2005: Espresso Tales
  3. 2006: Love Over Scotland
  4. 2007: The World According to Bertie
  5. 2008: The Unbearable Lightness of Scones
  6. 2010: The Importance of Being Seven
  7. 2011: Bertie Plays The Blues
  8. 2012: Sunshine on Scotland Street
  9. 2013: Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers
  10. 2015: The Revolving Door of Life
  11. 2016: The Bertie Project
  12. 2017: A Time of Love and Tartan
  13. 2019: The Peppermint Tea Chronicles

    ''The Sunday Philosophy Club'' series

also known as Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries