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Search: Title or Author
Suggested Links
Books by this Author:
In Detail:
Blue Shoes and Happiness (2006)
In The Company of Cheerful Ladies (2005)
The Sunday Philosophy Club (2004)
The Full Cupboard of Life (2004)
The Kalahari Typing School For Men (2003)
Tears of The Giraffe (2001)
The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency (2001)

Others:
The Charming Quirks of Others (2010)
Corduroy Mansions (2010)
The Double Comfort Safari Club (2010)
The Unbearable Lightness of Scones (2010)
La's Orchestra Saves the World (2009)
The Lost Art of Gratitude (2009)
Tea Time for the Traditionally Built (2009)
The World According to Bertie (2008)
The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday (2008)
The Careful Use of Compliments (2008)
The Miracle at Speedy Motors (2008)
Love Over Scotland (2007)
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (2007)
The Right Attitude To Rain (2006)
Akimbo and the Crocodile Man (2006)
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate (2005)
Akimbo and the Elephants (2005)

Other Links:
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Interviews
Carol Lynch Williams
Carol Lynch Williams discussed The Chosen One, and what inspired her to write a book about polygamy.
C. W. Gortner
A video interview with C.W. Gortner in which he talks about his 2010 historical novel, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici.
Vanessa Woods
Vanessa Woods discusses her first book, Bonobo Handshake, and her experiences with the extrarodinary Bonobos.
Kwei Quartey
Kwei Quartey talks about his childhood in Ghana and his first novel, Wife of the Gods, set in a small Ghanaian community where long-buried secrets are about to rise to the surface.
No Stars
   Alexander McCall Smith: Biography

Browse a biography and interview of Alexander McCall Smith
Plus: Book summary, excerpts and reviews at BookBrowse.com.

Alexander McCall Smith
Alexander McCall Smith Books by this author at BookBrowse:
The Charming Quirks of Others
Corduroy Mansions
The Double Comfort Safari Club

More Books by Alexander McCall Smith (24)

Author Interview

Link to Alexander McCall Smith's Website
Biography

Alexander McCall Smith began the now highly successful 'No 1 Ladies Detective Agency' series in 1996, after being inspired by the sight of a 'traditionally built' Botswanan lady chasing down a chicken for a meal. The first book in the series - 'The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency' was published in the UK in 1998 but didn't arrive in the USA until 2001.

Series Order
1. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
2. Tears of The Giraffe
3. Morality For Beautiful Girls
4. The Kalahari Typing School For Men
5. The Full Cupboard of Life
6. In The Company of Cheerful Ladies
7. Blue Shoes and Happiness
8. The Good Husband of Zebra Drive
9. The Miracle at Speedy Motors
10. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built



Known to his friends as Sandy, McCall Smith describes the Botswanans as 'genuinely courteous people' He knows Botswana well as he grew up there and also spent several years on the law faculty of the University of Botswana; his volume on the legal system of Botswana (The Criminal Law of Botswana )remains the definitive and in fact, only book on the subject.

In 2004 he published the first in a new series, 'The Sunday Philosophy Club' featuring Isabel Dalhousie, a Scottish-American professor of moral philosophy. The second in the series, Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, was published in 2005; The Right Attitude To Rain followed in 2006 and The Careful Use of Compliments in 2007.

When asked what ties the two series together he says that he believes it to be 'the comfort of the settings - not too cozy, but interesting and comfortable enough that you get caught up in the worlds of Mma. Ramotswe and Isabel'.

In addition to all his other projects, McCall Smith also finds time to play in the Really Terrible Orchestra and writes a daily column for The Scotsman newspaper titled 44 Scotland Street - writing over 110,000 words in 6 months! Television and movie rights based on the series have recently been sold to Working Title Films (who produced Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City).  The series have been published in 3 separate books to date:  44 Scotland Street, Espresso Tales and Love Over Scotland.

In 2006 he, along with two other prominent Edinburgh authors (Ian Rankin and Irvin Welsh), published a series of short stories titled One City, with the proceeds going to the Edinburgh based charity, One City.

Up until 2004 he juggled his career as a Professor of Medical Law, with his writing (in addition to the Mma Ramotswe and Isabel Dalhousie books, he has written over fifty other books ranging from specialist titles such as Forensic Aspects of Sleep (the only book on the subject) to The Perfect Hamburger (a children's novel) and Portuguese Irregular Verbs (a collection of stories about eccentric German professors). However, in late 2004 he took a 3 year leave from his academic position in order to focus on writing and, to the best of our knowledge, has not returned.

For an extremely comprehensive bibliography of this prolific author, listing UK and USA publication dates, we recommend fantasticfiction.co.uk
Copyright BookBrowse.com 2008
This biography was last updated on 06/01/2009.
A note about the biographies
We try to keep BookBrowse's biographies both up to date and accurate. However, with over 1,500 lives to keep track of it's inevitable that some won't be as current or as complete as we would like. So, please help us - if the information about a particular author is out of date, inaccurate or simply very short, and you know of a more complete source, please let us know. Authors and those connected with authors: If you wish to make changes to your bio, please send your complete biography as you would like it displayed so that we replace the old with the new.

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The Brutal Telling
Editor's Choice
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Brodeck
Phillipe Claudel
Brodeck Jacket Set in an unnamed time and place, Brodeck blends the familiar and unfamiliar, myth and history into a work of extraordinary power and resonance. Readers of J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace, Bernhard Schlink's The Reader and Kafka will be captivated by Brodeck.
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Beirut 39 Jacket An exciting collection of the best new writing from the Arab world, by thirty-nine writers under thirty-nine.
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