Alexander McCall Smith was born in what is now Zimbabwe and
was educated there and in Scotland. He became a law professor in Scotland, and
it was in this role that he first returned to Africa, where he helped to set up
a law school at the University of Botswana. He is now Professor Emeritus at the
University of Edinburgh.
McCall Smith has written more than 60 books, including academic
titles, story collections and children's books. He is best known for
his No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. The latest
book in that series, The Double Comfort Safari Club, was published in April
2010. Corduroy Mansions, the first book in his new series set in London was
published by Pantheon on July 13, 2010.
On your nightstand now:
Beauty by Roger Scruton and Tuscany--A History by Alistair Moffat.
Favorite book when you were a child:
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling.
Your top five authors:
R.K. Narayan, Graham Greene, Barbara Pym, W.H. Auden and J.M. Coetzee.
Book you've faked reading:
No incriminating questions, please!
Book you're an evangelist for:
Auden's Collected Shorter Poems 1927-1957.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Behind the Picture: Art and Evidence in the Italian Renaissance by Martin Kemp.
Book that changed your life:
Auden's Collected Shorter Poems.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.