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
hook novels serial
Serial novels have an unexpected effect; they hook the writer as well as the reader.
moved music opera people
The point of opera is that people are moved by the emotions and music.
books constant country fed great lives paint people picture pleased portray positive poverty problems puts reporting success welcome
I think people in Botswana are pleased that my books paint a positive picture of their lives and portray the country as being very special. They've made a great success of their country, and the people are fed up with the constant reporting of only the problems and poverty of the continent. They welcome something which puts the positive side.
life local
The local community is very important in one's life; the feelings of identification with a place and people.
life smaller
If you lose sight of the smaller accomplishments, you end up with an imbalance in your life.
country intimacy million people related tend
There is this intimacy still in Botswana. It's a country of just under two million people, and there's this sense of connectedness, in that people tend to be related to one another.
suffering-of-others imagination moral
It's through the small things that we develop our moral imagination, so that we can understand the sufferings of others.
opposites way philosopher
And that, in a way, was the burden of being a philosopher: one knew what one had to do, but it was so often the opposite of what one really wanted to do.
has-beens
Everything has been something before.
tiny earth persons
I am just a tiny person in Africa, but there is a place for me, and for everybody, to sit down on this earth and touch it and call it their own.
perhaps
You're always told by your publisher that you must only write one book a year and some years you should perhaps write none at all.
children giving long
I've also long since realized that the way to really engage children is to give out prizes; it's amazing how it concentrates their minds.
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.
heavyweights persons prepared
Do not take on a traditionally built person unless you are prepared for a heavyweight bout.