Smith, Alexander McCall 1948–

views updated

Smith, Alexander McCall 1948–

(Alexander McCall Smith)

PERSONAL: Born 1948, in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe); married Elizabeth (a doctor); children: Lucy and Emily. Education: Studied law in Scotland. Hobbies and other interests: Plays bassoon in Really Terrible Orchestra.

ADDRESSES: Home—Edinburgh, Scotland. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Pantheon Publicity, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Writer, lawyer, and educator. Edinburgh University, Scotland, professor of medical law. Taught law at University of Botswana; helped create a criminal code for Botswana; served as vice chairman of the Human Genetics Commission of the United Kingdom; and was a member of the International Bioethics Commission for UNESCO. Visiting professor at numerous universities, including Southern Methodist University Law School.

AWARDS, HONORS: Saga Wit Award, 2003, for The Full Cupboard of Life.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(Editor, with Tony Carty) Power and Manoeuvrability, Q Press (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1978.

(With John Kenyon Mason) Law and Medical Ethics, Butterworth (London, England), 1983, seventh edition published as Mason & McCall Smith's Law and Medical Ethics, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

(With John Kenyon Mason) Butterworth's Medico-Legal Encyclopedia, Butterworth (Boston, MA), 1987.

(Editor, with Elaine Sutherland) Family Rights: Family Law and Medical Advances, Edinburgh University Press (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1990.

(With Kwame Frimpong) The Criminal Law of Botswana, Juta (Cape Town, South Africa), 1992.

(Editor, with Michael A. Menlowe) The Duty to Rescue: The Jurisprudence of Aid, Dartmouth (Brookfield, VT), 1993.

(Editor, with Colin Shapiro) Forensic Aspects of Sleep, Wiley (New York, NY), 1997.

(With Daniel W. Shuman) Justice and the Prosecution of Old Crimes: Balancing Legal, Psychological, and Moral Concerns, American Psychological Association (Washington, DC), 2000.

(With Alan Merry) Errors, Medicine, and the Law, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2001.

Also author of the audio book Creating Humans: Ethical Questions Where Reproduction and Science Collide, Recorded Books (Prince Frederick, MD), 2004.

"NO. 1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY" SERIES

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, D. Philip (Cape Town, South Africa), 1998, Anchor Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Tears of the Giraffe, Polygon (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2001, Anchor Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Morality for Beautiful Girls, Polygon (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2001, Anchor Books (New York, NY), 2002.

The Kalahari Typing School for Men, Polygon (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2002, Pantheon (New York, NY), 2003.

The Full Cupboard of Life, Pantheon (New York, NY), 2003.

In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, Pantheon (New York, NY), 2004.

Blue Shoes and Happiness, Pantheon Books (New York, NY), 2006.

"SUNDAY PHILOSOPHY CLUB" SERIES

The Sunday Philosophy Club, Pantheon (New York, NY), 2004.

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, Pantheon (New York, NY), 2005.

The Right Attitude to Rain, Pantheon (New York, NY), 2006.

"DR. MORIZ-MAIRA VON INGELFELD" SERIES

Portuguese Irregular Verbs, Polygon (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2003, Anchor Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Finer Points of Sausage Dogs, illustrations by Iain McIntosh, Anchor Books (New York, NY), 2005.

At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances, illustrations by Iain McIntosh, Anchor Books (New York, NY), 2005.

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

The Perfect Hamburger, illustrated by Laszlo Acs, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1982.

Film Boy, illustrated by Joanna Carey, Methuen (London, England), 1988.

Mike's Magic Seeds, illustrated by Kate Shannon, Young Corgi (London, England), 1988.

Suzy Magician, Young Corgi (London, England), 1990.

The Five Lost Aunts of Harriet Bean, Blackie (London, England), 1990, reprinted with illustrations by Laura Rankin, Bloomsbury Children's Books (New York, NY), 2006.

The Muscle Machine, illustrated by Terry McKenna, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1995.

The Bubblegum Tree, illustrated by Georgien Overwater, Hippo (London, England), 1996.

Bursting Balloons Mystery, illustrated by Georgien Overwater, Hippo (London, England), 1997.

The Popcorn Pirates, illustrated by Georgien Overwater, Hippo (London, England), 1999.

Akimbo and the Lions, illustrated by LeUyen Pham, Bloomsbury Children's Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Akimbo and the Elephants, illustrated by LeUyen Pham, Bloomsbury Children's Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Akimbo and Crocodile Man, illustrated by LeUyen Pham, Bloomsbury Children's Books (New York, NY), 2006.

The Cowgirl Aunt of Harriet Bean, illustrated by Laura Rankin, Bloomsbury Children's Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Harriet Bean and the League of Cheats, illustrated by Laura Rankin, Bloomsbury Children's Books (New York, NY), 2006.

The Banana Machine, illustrated by Ian Bilbey, Bloomsbury Children's Books (London, England), 2006.

Author of other children's books, including The White Hippo, Hamish Hamilton; Marzipan Max, Blackie; The Ice-Cream Bicycle, Viking; The Doughnut Ring, Hamish Hamilton; Paddy and the Ratcatcher, Heinemann; and The Princess Trick, Puffin.

FICTION

Children of Wax: African Folk Tales, Canongate (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1989, Interlink Book (New York, NY), 1991.

Heavenly Date and Other Stories, Canongate (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1995.

(Reteller) The Girl Who Married a Lion and Other Tales from Africa, Pantheon Books (New York, NY), 2004.

44 Scotland Street (originally published in serial form by the Scotsman), illustrated by Iain McIntosh, Anchor Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Espresso Tales, illustrated by Iain McIntosh, Anchor Books (New York, NY), 2006.

ADAPTATIONS: The story "Children of Wax" was made into an animated film; other stories by Smith have been read on BBC Radio. A film adaptation of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency will be produced by Richard Sydney Pollack and directed by Anthony Minghella. 44 Scotland Street and The Sunday Philosophy Club are being adapted into television series for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Author's books have been made into audio books, including The Girl Who Married a Lion and Other Tales from Africa, Recorded Books, 2004; At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs, and Portuguese Irregular Verbs, Recorded Books, 2005; and Blue Shoes and Happiness, Time Warner, 2006.

SIDELIGHTS: The diverse accomplishments of Alexander McCall Smith include a distinguished career as a legal scholar and more recent fame as a best-selling novelist. A professor of medical law at Edinburgh University, Smith has published many works on medical ethics and criminal law. For example, he has written about the duty to rescue and the impact of medical advances on parental rights. Smith also had numerous books of fiction for young children and short-story collections in print before he published a series of detective stories set in Botswana. The first installment, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, became a bestselling novel in the United States after it was popularized by word of mouth. Readers and critics have been charmed by the stories, which are more about relationships, customs, and informal justice than sleuthing.

Born and raised in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Smith studied law in Edinburgh, Scotland. He then assisted in creating Botswana's first law school, taught law at the University of Botswana, and wrote a criminal code for Botswana. Many years later, in 1992, he would publish The Criminal Law of Botswana with Kwame Frimpong. The book interested critics with its discussion of how the country's criminal law is unlike others in southern Africa and how it resembles the Queensland Criminal Code of 1899. In the Journal of African Law Simon Coldham advised that the book is "designed primarily for students." James S. Read wrote in the International and Comparative Law Quarterly that the book provides "a short and selective introduction" to the subject.

Most of Smith's legal scholarship treats subjects relating to medical and criminal law issues. He served as coeditor and contributor for Family Rights: Family Law and Medical Advances, which contains seven essays about the legal and ethical implications of new medical capabilities that affect the creation of life as well as the extension of life. The essays consider the impact of laws on a family's ability to make their own medical decisions. Smith's contribution, "Is Anything Left of Parental Rights?," addresses the increased autonomy of children.

Reviews of Family Rights described the book as an indepth treatment suitable for specialists and general readers. In the Sydney Law Review Belinda Bennett recommended it as "a very readable collection" that avoids jargon and explains the necessary medical and scientific terminology. Jenny L. Urwin wrote in the Journal of Medical Ethics that it provided "interesting and thoughtful analysis" on a previously neglected subject. The book's "interdisciplinary and comparative flavour" was noted in Family Law by Andrew Bainham, who also commented: "The scholarship in this volume is, for the most part, as original as it is provocative and the two most impressive contributions are by the editors themselves." Writing for Nature, Andrew Grubb reflected on the context of Smith's essay: "Faced with this largely interventionist judicial attitude, it is left to Sandy McCall Smith to challenge its basis and to sound a note of caution."

In The Duty to Rescue: The Jurisprudence of Aid Smith helped compile essays that discuss the moral and sometimes legal duty to provide aid. The writings cover theoretical and philosophical concerns, the possible ways of putting theory into practice, and the state's duty to assist at-risk individuals. Reviewers noted that the work does a good job of addressing the diverse implications of making rescue a legal obligation. In a review for Choice, M.A. Foley called the book "rather comprehensive" and recommended it as a primary reference on the subject. In the University of British Columbia Law Review Mitchell McInnes commented that Smith's essay, "The Duty to Rescue and the Common Law," raises an interesting and incomplete point on the subject of how a legal requirement would impact the formation of individual moral intuition. Celia Wells recommended the volume and Smith's contributions in Criminal Law Review. She concluded: "This collection sweeps effortlessly across legal, jurisdictional, and philosophical boundaries posing on its way a series of fascinating questions and supplying some clues to the answers."

Smith is also a prolific fiction writer. His books for children reflect both Western and non-Western cultural influences, and are mostly written for new readers. One example showing Smith's African background is The White Hippo, a story set in Gambia about the unsuccessful efforts of villagers who want to protect an albino hippo from a white man claiming to be a photographer. In The Perfect Hamburger, an old man and a young boy join forces to try to save a family-run hamburger shop from being forced out of business by a chain restaurant.

The twenty-seven stories in Children of Wax: African Folk Tales are more suited for older children and storytellers. Smith collected the tales from old and young members of the Ndebele people of Zimbabwe. Featuring shape-changing animals and supernatural powers, they nevertheless contain realistic portrayals of hardship and danger. The stories often serve to condemn bad behaviors such as greed and unfounded trust and show that justice does not always follow wrongdoing. Library Journal's Patricia Dooley warned that this is "emphatically not children's pabulum." In a review for Choice, P. Alden was not quite satisfied with the authenticity of Smith's retelling, but said that the stories are "engaging" and that some are notable for their depiction of Zimbabwean women. A Kirkus Reviews contributor admired the collection for its "evocative, involving narratives that reveal much about the culture from which they spring."

The collection Heavenly Date and Other Stories is comprised of original stories by Smith that are international in scope. Among them, "Intimate Accounts" is set in a fictional world, "Bulawayo" happens in Southern Rhodesia, and others take place in Zurich, Lisbon, and Northern Queensland. The dark and funny pieces relate all kinds of strange dates, meetings, and exchanges between men and women. In a review for the Times Literary Supplement, Andrew Biswell made note of Smith's inventiveness, stylistic range, and the "remarkable absence of excess baggage" in the collection that he thought showed the influence of African oral story-telling.

Smith's inspiration for The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and the protagonist Mma Precious Ramotswe was his admiration for the women of Africa, according to an interviewer in Publishers Weekly. The novel and subsequent books in the series—including Tears of the Giraffe, Morality for Beautiful Girls, and The Kalahari Typing School for Men,—are mostly about everyday life in Africa. The character of Mma Ramotswe is the dynamic central force behind these stories. A solidly built, divorced woman in her late thirties, she uses a tiny inheritance to start a detective agency. Her work takes place in the city of Gaborone and in cattle country near the Kalahari Desert. She deals mostly with family conflicts, including cheating husbands, and employer-employee troubles. Mma Ramotswe runs a threadbare operation, but she does have an assistant, Mma Makutsi, a secretarial college graduate who has lost better jobs to her prettier classmates. Another key figure is J.L.B. Matekoni, a mechanic who assists them and later becomes engaged to Mma Ramotswe. The bride-to-be is a rather unconventional detective, one who also serves as family counselor, comments on manners and the lack of them, and is less concerned with legally administered justice than with doing right by her clients.

Mma Ramotswe and Smith's novels about her have charmed reviewers, who have found the novels fresh, amusing, and affecting. Baltimore City Paper critic Mahinder Kingra judged that in this "deceptively frivolous" novel there is "as honest and sympathetic a portrait of contemporary African life as [Nigerian writer Chinua] Achebe's." Kingra commented that the book is "one of those rare, unassuming novels that seems to contain all of life within its pages, and affirms life in telling its story." Christine Jeffords noted in Best Reviews that Smith "succeeds in giving his story a lilting, lyrical flavor that makes the reader feel almost as if she is listening to a story being spun by a native tale-teller." Anthony Daniels in the Spectator commented on the first three novels: "I know nothing else like them." Daniels credited Smith with an admirably simple writing style and the remarkable feat of "creating fictional characters who are decent, goodhearted but not in the least bit dull." The critic advised that "for all their apparent simplicity, the Precious Ramotswe books are highly sophisticated."

When Alida Becker reviewed the first three books for the New York Times, dubbing Mma Ramotswe the "Miss Marple of Botswana," it dramatically increased public awareness of the series. As Becker noted, film rights for the series had already been sold to Anthony Minghella, director of The English Patient. In the Wall Street Journal, Matthew Gurewitsch found The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency to be no less than "one of the most entrancing literary treats of many a year."

Smith has continued to produce new novels for the "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series. In The Full Cupboard of Life, Mma Ramotswe and her assistant, Mma Makutsi, help a rich woman decide which of her many suitors are only after her money. "The charm of this series … is its wealth of very real characters," wrote Sheila Janega in the School Library Journal. Roger Kaplan, writing in Commentary, noted: "Like the other mysteries solved by Precious Ramotswe over the course of these stories, this one is skillfully and without ostentation related by McCall Smith to the larger African mystery, of which Botswana is both typical and atypical."

In the Company of Cheerful Ladies is the sixth installment in the series and features the newly married Mma Ramotswe and partner Mma Makutsi on a series of adventures that begin after someone breaks into Ramotswe's home. The crew then sets out to discover who the person might be. Writing in People, Heidi Jon Schmidt noted that the author's "Africa … feels both exotic and deeply familiar." Library Journal contributor Nicole A. Cooke wrote: "Smith remains true to form in this clever and wonderfully written installment."

Smith also resumed writing for children with books such as Akimbo and the Lions and Akimbo and the Elephants. The stories focus on the young African boy Akimbo who has a deep respect for his native land, people, and animals. In Akimbo and the Elephants the boy, whose father is a wildlife ranger, sets out to stop poachers from killing elephants. In Akimbo and the Lions he adopts a lion cub only to realize that he eventually must let it go back to the wild. Shelle Rosenfeld, writing in Booklist about both titles, noted that "Akimbo emerges as a brave, caring protagonist." A Publishers Weekly contributor called Akimbo and the Elephants a "fast-paced tale" and noted the author's "concise writing." Also reviewing both Akimbo and the Lions and Akimbo and the Elephants, School Library Journal contributor Mary N. Oluonye wrote that the "chapter-book adventures will transport American readers to the plains of Africa."

Smith also began a new series with The Sunday Philosophy Club, which features Isabel Dalhousie, a genteel lady who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, and who, like Ramotswe from the "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series, has had a difficult past with men and also has a devoted helper in the form of her Scottish housekeeper, Grace. In this installment, the independently wealthy Dalhousie, who also edits a philosophy journal and is a member of the local Sunday Philosophy Club, witnesses a man fall from a balcony at a concert and is soon on the case to determine whether or not it was murder. In a review in Entertainment Weekly, Jennifer Reese wrote that the book "offers the same kind of sustenance supplied by his first, phenomenally popular series…. Opportunities to read about an intelligent, inquisitive woman trying to lead a meaningful, moral life crop up so infrequently that the mild-mannered, loosely constructed Philosophy Club glows like a rare jewel." In Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, Dalhousie continues her adventures while debating philosophical issues in what Reese, once again writing in Entertainment Weekly, called a "cozy new wisp of a novel."

Smith presents a sequential series of stories in three books titled Portuguese Irregular Verbs, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs, and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances. The stories feature Dr. Moriz-Maira von Ingelfeld and his colleagues Dr. Florianus Prinzel and Dr. Detlev Amadeus Unterholzer, all members of the Institute of Romance Philology in Regensburg, Germany. The stories are small comic tales that focus on a small incidence that becomes blown out of proportion as von Ingelfeld sets out to prove his intellectual superiority. His need to prove himself leads to various adventures, such as a duel that results in Prinzel losing the tip of his nose. In The Finer Point of Sausage Dogs, the author presents five interlinked stories including a tale about Unterholzer's one-legged dachshund who lost its other three legs when they were mistakenly amputated. "This delightful head-in-the-clouds professor will enthrall the author's many fans," wrote Karen Core in a Library Journal review of the three books in the series.

Smith is also author of 44 Scotland Street, a series of tales that focus on the residents of an Edinburgh boarding house. Originally serialized in the Scotsman, the stories include a wide range of characters involved in a minor mystery concerning a painting. A Publishers Weekly contributor called the book "episodic, amusing and peopled with characters both endearing and benignly problematic." Core, writing in the Library Journal, noted that the book "makes for an amusing and absorbing look at Edinburgh society."

In addition to fiction, the author has continued to contribute to the field of law through such efforts as Justice and the Prosecution of Old Crimes: Balancing Legal, Psychological, and Moral Concerns, written with Daniel W. Shuman, and Errors, Medicine, and the Law, which Smith cowrote with Alan Merry.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 1, 2005, Allison Block, review of 44 Scotland Street, p. 1325; September 1, 2005, Shelle Rosenfeld, review of Akimbo and the Elephants and Akimbo and the Lions, p. 135.

Bookseller, March 11, 2005, "McCall Smith Closes on Three Million Milestone," p. 27; September 2, 2005, Joe Hill, review of Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, p. 13.

Choice, February, 1992, P. Alden, review of Children of Wax: African Folk Tales, p. 903; July-August, 1994, M.A. Foley, review of The Duty to Rescue: The Jurisprudence of Aid, p. 1792.

Commentary, October, 2004, Roger Kaplan, review of The Full Cupboard of Life, p. 86.

Criminal Law Review, January, 1996, Celia Wells, review of The Duty to Rescue, pp. 71-72.

Entertainment Weekly, October 1, 2004, Jennifer Reese, review of The Sunday Philosophy Club, p. 76; September 23, 2005, Jennifer Reese, review of Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, p. 94.

Family Law, April, 1992, Andrew Bainham, review of Family Rights: Family Law and Medical Advances, p. 135.

International and Comparative Law Quarterly, July, 1993, James S. Read, review of The Criminal Law of Botswana, pp. 748-749.

Journal of African Law, autumn, 1992, Simon Coldham, review of The Criminal Law of Botswana, pp. 193-194.

Journal of Medical Ethics, June, 1992, Jenny L. Urwin, review of Family Rights, pp. 108-109.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 1991, review of Children of Wax, p. 793; December 1, 2004, review of The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs, p. 1113; December 1, 2004, review of At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances, p. 1113; June 1, 2005, "Q&A: Alexander McCall Smith," p. S14.

Library Journal, July, 1991, Patricia Dooley, review of Children of Wax, p. 106; January 1, 2005, Karen Core, reviews of Portuguese Irregular Verbs, At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances, and The Fine Points of Sausage Dogs, p. 101; May 1, 2005, Nicole A. Cooke, review of In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, p. 69, and Karen Core, review of 44 Scotland Street, p. 77.

M2 Best Books, November 7, 2005, "Two Alexander McCall Smith Novels Set to Become TV Series."

Nature, June 27, 1991, Andrew Grubb, review of Family Rights, p. 707.

New York Times Book Review, January 27, 2002, Alida Becker, "Miss Marple of Botswana," p. 12.

People, May 30, 2005, Heidi Jon Schmidt, review of In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, p. 46.

Publishers Weekly, July 22, 2002, Charlotte Abbott, "From Africa, with Love," p. 75; March 28, 2005, Judith Rosen, "The No. 1 Most Prolific Author: Less Is More? Try Telling that to Alexander McCall Smith," p. 22; April 25, 2005, review of 44 Scotland Street, p. 35; September 5, 2005, review of Akimbo and the Elephants, p. 63.

School Library Journal, October, 2004, Sheila Janega, review of The Full Cupboard of Life, p. 199; September, 2005, Sheila Janega, review of In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, p. 244; November, 2005, Mary N. Oluonye, review of Akimbo and the Lions and Akimbo and the Elephants, p. 108.

Spectator, September 1, 2001, Anthony Daniels, "Something Really New Out of Africa," pp. 36-37; October 2, 2004, Antonia Fraser, review of The Sunday Philosophy Club, p. 45.

Sydney Law Review, June, 1992, Belinda Bennett, review of Family Rights, pp. 253-255.

Times Literary Supplement, November 3, 1995, Andrew Biswell, "Mr Self and Ms Ms," p. 25.

University of British Columbia Law Review, winter, 1994, Mitchell McInnes, review of The Duty to Rescue, pp. 201-204.

Wall Street Journal, September 4, 2002, Matthew Gurewitsch, "A Scholarly Scot Writes of African Intrigue," p. D8.