>>PREVIEW
ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH
Thursday, October 5 at 7:30 p.m.
Knox United Church
There is a striking picture of best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith featured on the inside jacket of the newly released The Right Attitude to Rain. The latest in one of his many book series, this one is the third of a saga born from The Sunday Philosophy Club.
"That picture – I can play the tuba, but I don’t really," McCall Smith confesses. "There was a tuba sitting around my study when that particular photographer called. And, of course, because photographers like to humiliate their subjects, they made me lean against the tuba," he laughs, noting, "the bassoon is an instrument I play extremely badly in an orchestra called The Really Terrible Orchestra, which my wife and I founded about seven years ago for musically challenged people. And I do assure you that the name is correct."
McCall Smith indeed leads a double, if not a triple life of sorts, and not just one influenced by writing or his involvement in an amateur orchestra. Add to his credentials a distinguished professorship of medical law at the University of Edinburgh, teaching and setting up the law faculty at the University of Botswana and being a member of many international bodies concerned with bioethics. Indeed, McCall Smith deserves a far more complex portrait than 600 or so words permit.
He was born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and later educated in Scotland. His work in law took him to Botswana. "I think that, obviously, where one spends one’s childhood is immensely important, in terms of attitude towards the world," says McCall Smith. "I have a particular feeling for Africa, and that clearly must be reflected in some of my work. Certainly in the Botswana novels, I think that’s probably most obvious. In relation to the other novels, which are set in Scotland and elsewhere – that clearly is the result of the fact that I’ve spent most of my life in Scotland now and that gets into the books."
McCall Smith is known as the best-selling author of the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency and its subsequent book series, including Tears of the Giraffe, Morality for Beautiful Girls and The Kalahari Typing School for Men. These feature the heroine Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s only female private detective.
"This is a character whom I invented initially in a short story, and I liked her so much that I made a book about her, then ended up writing a whole series of books about her which are still being written," he says. "She’s a very fine person – very forgiving, understanding and astute.
"I would say there are many such people in Botswana, many competent and clever women. And I met such people, although there is no particular Precious Ramotswe on which the character is based," he adds.
Many of McCall Smith’s books depict characters in a light-hearted manner, including his books based in Botswana. When asked about the news we generally receive in the west about sub-Saharan Africa, he acknowledges the tragic epidemic of HIV/AIDS, but also notes the positive stories that tend to be forgotten.
"We never hear the other side of these stories, that in many African countries people are doing their best to get by. There are also many people who are leading lives of great dignity and doing so with a great generosity of spirit, often in very difficult circumstances. So when I write these books, I’m writing about a positive side of Africa which is often ignored, but which is certainly there as anybody who goes to Africa and the sub-Saharan countries will tend to confirm."
Other series by McCall Smith include The Sunday Philosophy Club, with another heroine, Edinburgh’s self-determined sleuth Isabel Dalhousie. She shares a few common virtues with Ramostwe, although they come from very different experiences.
"They are both interested in the moral dimensions of action, although they approach it from a different angle," says McCall Smith. "Isabel Dalhousie is a professional philosopher, and therefore she debates herself about the implications of her actions in a rather formal fashion. And Mma Ramotswe is more of a kitchen philosopher. She knows what the right thing to do is, and she does it – so there are some differences from these two ladies in that respect."
He is also the author of numerous other works, including The von Igelefeld series (with charming titles such as Portuguese Irregular Verbs and The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs), the Scotland Street series, Children of Wax: African Folk Tales, The Girl Who Married A Lion And Other Tales from Africa, academic texts and many children’s books, including the widely translated The Perfect Hamburger. Perhaps this helps explain why he hasn’t much time to tune up his bassoonist skills – besides touring, he is currently working on his next novel in the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series due next spring. |
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