Alexander McCall Smith

Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE (born 24 August 1948), 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.

Alexander McCall Smith

CBE, FRSE
McCall Smith in 2007
BornRodney Alexander Alasdair McCall Smith
(1948-08-24) 24 August 1948
Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)
OccupationWriter, professor
NationalityBritish, Zimbabwean
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
EducationChristian Brothers College, Bulawayo
Alma materUniversity of Edinburgh (LLB, PhD)
GenreFiction, Crime fiction, Children's books, Academic non-fiction
Website
alexandermccallsmith.co.uk

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.[1] He is most widely known as the creator of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.[1][2] "McCall" is not a middle name: his two-part surname is "McCall Smith".[3][4]

Early life

Alexander McCall Smith was born in Bulawayo in 1948 to parents of British origin (his grandfather was born in Nairn, Scotland) in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe), the youngest of four children.[5] His father worked as a public prosecutor in Bulawayo.[6] 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[7] and PhD degrees.[5][8] 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.[6]

Professional career
McCall Smith (right) speaks at the Library of Congress in 2019

He returned to southern Africa in 1981 to help co-found the law school and teach law at the University of Botswana.[5] While there, he co-wrote The Criminal Law of Botswana (1992).[9]

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 (until 2002), 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.[10] 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.[1] Nearby lived the authors J. K. Rowling, Ian Rankin, and Kate Atkinson.[1][11]

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,[12] for whom he wrote the libretto of their first production, a version of Macbeth set among a troop of baboons in the Okavango Delta.[13][14]

In 2012 he appeared in a documentary about the life and work of author W. Somerset Maugham, Revealing Mr. Maugham.[15]

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.” [16]

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.[17]

Author
Alexander McCall Smith signing books in Helsinki April 2007

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 [a day] – but more like 5,000 words when at home in Edinburgh. His usual rate is 1,000 words an hour."[2] 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.[2]

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."[18]

He published 30 books in the 1980s and 1990s before he began the series that has brought him the world's notice.[1] 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.'"[2]

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.[19]

Bibliography

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 (also known as: The Night-Time Dancer)
  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 (ebook only)

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

Corduroy Mansions series

Professor Dr von Igelfeld Entertainments series

  • 1997: Portuguese Irregular Verbs [20]
  • 2003: The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs
  • 2003: At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances
  • 2004: The 2½ Pillars of Wisdom – An omnibus edition of the first three von Igelfeld titles
  • 2011: Unusual Uses for Olive Oil

Detective Varg series

  • 2019: The Strange Case of the Moderate Extremists (ebook only)
  • 2019: The Department of Sensitive Crimes (his given name is stylised as Älexander on the cover)
  • 2019: Varg in Love (ebook only)
  • 2020: The Talented Mr. Varg

Big-Top Mysteries series

  • 2019: The Case of the Vanishing Granny
  • 2019: The Great Clown Conundrum

Paul Stewart series

  • 2016: My Italian Bulldozer
  • 2019: The Second Worst Restaurant in France

Other novels

  • 2008: La's Orchestra Saves the World
  • 2012: Trains and Lovers
  • 2014: The Forever Girl
  • 2014: Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party
  • 2015: Emma: A Modern Retelling
  • 2017: The Good Pilot, Peter Woodhouse

Short stories

  • 2011: "The Strange Story of Bobby Box" (published in the young adult anthology: What You Wish For)

Anthologies

  • 1991: Children of Wax: African Folk Tales
  • 1995: Heavenly Date and Other Flirtations
  • 2004: The Girl Who Married a Lion and Other Tales from Africa
  • 2006: Baboons Who Went This Way and That (Tales from Africa)
  • 2015: Chance Developments: Unexpected Love Stories
  • 2016: Marvellous Mix-ups
  • 2019: Pianos and Flowers

Children's novels

  • 1980: The White Hippo
  • 1984: The Perfect Hamburger
  • 1988: Alix and the Tigers
  • 1990: The Tin Dog
  • 1991: Calculator Annie
  • 1991: Marzipan Max
  • 1991: The Popcorn Pirates
  • 1992: The Doughnut Ring
  • 1993: Who Invented Peanut Butter?
  • 1994: Paddy and the Ratcatcher
  • 1995: The Muscle Machine
  • 1996: The Bubblegum Tree
  • 1997: The Five Lost Aunts of Harriet Bean
  • 2000: Teacher Trouble
  • 2006: Dream Angus
  • 2016: Freddie Mole, Lion Tamer
  • 2018: Hari and his Electric Feet
  • 2018: Max Champion and the Great Race Car Robbery

School Ship Tobermory

  • 2015: School Ship Tobermory
  • 2016: The Sands of Shark Island
  • 2018: The Race to Kangaroo Cliff
  • 2019: The Secret of the Dark Waterfall

Akimbo

  • 1992: Akimbo and the Lions
  • 1993: Akimbo and the Crocodile Man
  • 2005: Akimbo and the Elephants
  • 2006: Akimbo and the Snakes
  • 2008: Akimbo and the Baboons

Harriet Bean

  • 1993: The Cowgirl Aunt of Harriet Bean
  • 1990: The Five Lost Aunts of Harriet Bean
  • 1991: Harriet Bean and the League of Cheats

Max & Maddy

  • 1997: Max & Maddy and the Bursting Balloons Mystery
  • 1999: Max & Maddy and the Chocolate Money Mystery

Young Precious Ramotswe

  • 2010: Precious and the Puggies[21] (republished in 2011 as: Precious and the Monkeys)
  • 2012: Precious and the Mystery of Meerkat Hill
  • 2012: The Great Cake Mystery
  • 2013: Precious and the Missing Lion
  • 2015: Precious and the Zebra Necklace

Memoir/literary appreciation

  • 2013: What Auden Can Do for You

Academic texts

  • 1978: Power and Manoeuvrability (with Tony Carty)
  • 1983: Law and Medical Ethics (with J. Kenyon Mason) (this text has gone through several editions: an eighth, by Mason and Graeme Laurie, was published in 2010; McCall Smith contributed to the first six editions)
  • 1987: Butterworths Medico-Legal Encyclopaedia (with J. Kenyon Mason)
  • 1990: Family Rights: Family Law and Medical Advances (with Elaine Sutherland)
  • 1991: All About Drink and Drug Abuse (educational text)
  • 1992: The Criminal Law of Botswana (with Kwame Frimpong)
  • 1993: The Duty to Rescue (with Michael Menlowe, 1993)
  • 1992: Scots Criminal Law (with David H Sheldon, second edition published 1997)
  • 1997: Forensic Aspects of Sleep (with Colin Shapiro)
  • 2000: Justice and the Prosecution of Old Crimes (with Daniel W. Shuman)
  • 2001: Errors, Medicine and the Law (with Alan Merry)
  • 2003: A Draft Criminal Code for Scotland (with Eric Clive, Pamela Ferguson and Christopher Gane)
  • 2004: Creating Humans: Ethical Questions where Reproduction and Science Collide (collected lectures, audio recordings)

See also

References
  1. Philby, Charlotte (19 June 2010). "Alexander McCall Smith: The No1 novelist's guide to Edinburgh". The Independent. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
  2. Grice, Elizabeth (13 March 2009). "Alexander McCall Smith talks about 'Corduroy Mansions' – interview". The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 October 2013. To say McCall Smith is a literary phenomenon doesn't quite describe what has happened.
  3. McCall Smith, Alexander. "A. McCall Smith (McCallSmith) on Twitter". Twitter.com. Twitter.com. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
  4. "McCall Smith praises inspiration of islands". The Herald Scotland. 13 October 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
  5. "Alexander McCall Smith: Reader's Guide" (PDF). Just Buffalo Literary Center. Buffalo, New York. 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  6. Hunter, Jeffrey W. (2009). Contemporary Literary Criticism. Detroit, Michigan: Gale. ISBN 978-1-4144-1944-2.
  7. "Professor Alexander McCall Smith". University of Edinburgh School of Law. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  8. Nicoll, Ruaridh (2 May 2004). "Handy Sandy". The Observer. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
  9. Frimpong, Kwame; McCall Smith, Alexander (1992). The Criminal Law of Botswana. South Africa: Juta Publishers. ISBN 978-0702126703. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  10. "New Year Honours—United Kingdom". The London Gazette. 29 December 2006. Retrieved 3 January 2009.
  11. "Ian Rankin". No. 1 Magazine, Scotland's Glamorous Glossy. Archived from the original on 1 March 2014. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  12. Clayton, Jonathon; Lister, David (22 March 2008). "Alexander McCall Smith creates the No 1 Ladies' opera house". The Times. Archived from the original on 13 May 2008.
  13. AFP news report on the "Okavango Macbeth" on YouTube
  14. "The Okavango Macbeth". Goodmusic. 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  15. Guillen, Michael (22 June 2012). "The Evening Class: FRAMELINE36: REVEALING MR. MAUGHAM (2012)—The Evening Class Interview With Michael House". The Evening Class. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  16. "McCall Smith vows to give Cairns of Coll back". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  17. "Renowned Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith has link with Northland". Northern Advocate. 1 June 2014. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  18. "Alexander McCall Smith". Birlinn. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  19. Oxfam: Ox-Tales Archived 18 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  20. Maclean Dubois; 1st Edition (1997) Retrieved 5 December 2012.
  21. Scots language translation by James Robertson
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