Alexander McCall Smith (continued)

Last week I wrote about Alexander McCall Smith’s Corduroy Mansions series, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Born in Rhodesia in 1948, McCall Smith spent much of his early childhood in Africa but eventually moved to Scotland to finish his schooling. He studied law and is now Emeritus Professor at the School of Law, University of Edinburgh. In the early 1980s, he returned to Africa for a short period in order to co-found the University of Botswana.

For more than thirty years, he has been writing books both for adults and for children. Some of his books are based on his experiences in Africa: for example – The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series (adults) and a number of books about Akimbo (children).

Two of his other very popular series are: 44 Scotland Street and The Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries. He has also written free-standing novels (for example The Forever Girl) and a whole range of academic texts.

McCall Smith’s series The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency was made into a television series by the BBC in 2008/2009. The image above from www.telegraph.co.uk shows Jill Scott as Precious Ramotswe.