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Displaced Persons
'Recommended for a wide range of readers, and a perfect book club choice.' - Library Journal, starred review
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New Author
Interviews |
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Carol Lynch Williams
Carol Lynch Williams discussed The Chosen One, and what inspired her to write a book about polygamy.
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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.
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Vanessa Woods
Vanessa Woods discusses her first book, Bonobo Handshake, and her experiences with the extrarodinary Bonobos.
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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.
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Alexander McCall Smith: Biography
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Browse a biography and interview of Alexander McCall Smith
Plus: Book summary, excerpts and reviews at BookBrowse.com. |
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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
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This biography was last updated on 06/01/2009. |
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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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| Editor's Choice |
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Brodeck
Phillipe Claudel |
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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. |
The Confessions of Catherine de Medici
C. W. Gortner |
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From the fairy-tale châteaux of the Loire Valley to the battlefields of the wars of religion to the mob-filled streets of Paris, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici is the extraordinary untold journey of one of the most maligned and misunderstood women ever to be queen. |
Bonobo Handshake
Vanessa Woods |
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A young woman follows her fiancé to war-torn Congo to study extremely endangered bonobo apes - who teach her a new truth about love and belonging. |
Rock Paper Tiger
Lisa Brackmann |
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American Ellie Cooper, deserted by her husband, has made a number of friends in China. But suddenly one of them disappears, and security organizations are hounding her for information. Contacted through an online role-playing game by a group claiming to be friends of Lao Zhang asking her for... |
Beirut 39
Samuel Shimon |
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An exciting collection of the best new writing from the Arab world, by thirty-nine writers under thirty-nine. |
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| Latest BookBrowse News |
Publishers Weekly accepting paid reviews (Aug 26 2010)
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Stieg Larsson would not have approved of the renaming of the opening book to his Millennium trilogy from "Men Who Hate Women" to "The Girl with the Dragon...
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