Alexander McCall Smith

He also enjoys playing the bassoon, a musical instrument, and is the co-founder of ‘The Really Terrible Orchestra’, a British amateur orchestra group.

Alexander McCall Smith was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, which at that time was a British Colony, where he attended the Christian Brothers College, a boy’s high school.

He earned a Ph.D. in law from the University of Edinburgh, after which he started working as a teacher at the Queen's University, Belfast. Here, he won a literary competition in the children’s books category.

In 1981, he went to Southern Africa to teach law at The University of Botswana. During his tenure there, he co-wrote the book, ‘The Criminal Law of Botswana’.

In 1984, he published children’s book titled, ‘The Perfect Hamburger and Other Delicious Stories’, which was a collection of three stories, ‘The Perfect Hamburger’, ‘The Spaghetti Tangle’ and ‘The Doughnut Ring’.

In 1991, ‘Children of Wax: African Folk Tales’, a collection of a series of 27 short stories was published. It was inspired from the Ndebele people of Zimbabwe.

In 1997, he came out with the short comic novel titled, ‘Portuguese Irregular Verbs’, which is a part of his ‘Professor Dr von Igelfeld Entertainment’ series of books. This novel had eight chapters.

Published in 1999, ‘The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency’, the first of his series of ‘The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency’ series, was based on the murder of a 14 year old girl in Mochudi, Botswana.

In 2000, he published the second instalment of ‘The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency’ series, titled ‘Tears of the Giraffe’. The novel’s main protagonist detective ‘Mma Precious Ramotswe’ investigates a paternity case and the case of an American woman’s missing son.

‘The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency’ series is one of his best known works, which has sold over 20 million copies. The series became an international phenomenon and was adapted into a TV series by the BBC and HBO. It was also dramatized for BBC Radio 4.

‘Corduroy Mansions’ is an international bestselling series of novels which was featured on the New York Times bestseller list. The series was also declared one of the ‘International Books of the Year and the Millennium’ by the Times Literary Supplement.