Alexander McCall Smith
Alexander McCall Smith
R. Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE, is a British 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...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth24 August 1948
thinking fiction helping
I enjoy women's conversation, and I think that helps me to describe them in fiction.
mind tea aspect
I'm very interested in tea. I wouldn't mind being involved in some aspect of the tea industry.
might this-life enjoy
I see no point in being despondent. We might as well enjoy ourselves during our brief tenure of this life.
cities edinburgh used
Edinburgh used to be a haughty city.
peaceful debt democratic
Botswana is actually very peaceful. It's democratic. It never was in debt. They've been fortunate, they've had diamonds.
dysfunction noir addresses
Every novel presents a slice of life. A noir policier for example presents one slice, one that perhaps addresses social dysfunction or some sort of pathology, while mine present a slice that is more upbeat and affirmative.
three older-sister large-family
I have three older sisters, so we were a reasonably large family and, in general, a happy one.
powerful loss fiction
A very powerful theme in fiction is that of loss.
new-shoes old-friends supportive
Old friends, like old shoes, are comfortable. But old shoes, unlike old friends, tend not to be supportive: it is easier to stumble and sprain an ankle while wearing a pair of old shoes than it is in new shoes, with their less yielding leather.
eye essence world
It was the same with friendship. Disagreement between friends and spouses, too had to be carefully handled. If the time you spent with friends was consumed by disagreement, then there was no room for the essence of friendship, which was a sharing of the world. And that sharing involved seeing things the same way, or at least seeing things through the eyes of the friend.
latin school italian
I can read more languages than I speak! I speak French and Italian - not very well, alas, but I can get by. I read German and Spanish. I can read Latin (I did a lot of Latin at school.) I'm afraid I do not speak any African languages, although I can understand a little bit of the Zulu-related languages, but only a tiny bit.
acceptance scotland united-states
Whatever Scotland was, it was not a matriarchy; whereas the United States was a profoundly matriarchal society - and much more feminine than would be suggested by all that male bravado. That was a front, and a misleading one at that; underneath the male swagger lay a passive acceptance of female dominance - a fact not always appreciated by outsiders.
taken night men
I have always taken the view that one should never hold against a man anything he says after twelve o'clock at night or after a glass or two of anything.
sadness loss joy
Lou knew that joy unshared was a halved emotion, just as sadness and loss, when borne alone, were often doubled.