Alexander McCall Smith facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Alexander McCall Smith
CBE FRSE
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McCall Smith in 2018
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| Born | Rodney Alexander Alasdair McCall Smith 24 August 1948 Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) |
| Occupation | Professor of medical law, writer |
| Nationality | British, Zimbabwean |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Education | Christian Brothers College, Bulawayo |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh (LLB, PhD, Emeritus Professor in the School of Law) |
| Genre | Fiction, crime fiction, children's books, academic non-fiction |
Sir Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith (born 24 August 1948) is a Scottish writer and former law professor. He grew up in Southern Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe. He used to teach medical law at the University of Edinburgh.
He became an expert in medical law and bioethics, which is about the ethical questions in biology and medicine. He also worked on important committees in Britain and other countries. He is now very famous as a fiction writer. By 2010, his books had sold over 40 million copies in English. They have also been translated into 46 different languages! He is most famous for creating The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency book series.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Alexander McCall Smith was born in 1948 in Bulawayo. This city was part of the British colony of Southern Rhodesia, which is now called Zimbabwe. His parents were British. He had three older sisters. His dad was a public prosecutor there.
He went to school at the Christian Brothers College in Bulawayo. When he was 17, he moved to Scotland. He studied law at the University of Edinburgh and earned his law degrees there. Later, he taught at Queen's University Belfast. While teaching, he entered a writing contest. He won for a children's book!
Professional Career
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In 1981, McCall Smith went back to southern Africa. He helped start the law school at the University of Botswana and taught law there. While in Botswana, he helped write a book called The Criminal Law of Botswana (1992).
He was a Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. Now, he is an Emeritus Professor there, which means he is retired but still connected to the university. He also helps with the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, a famous literary award.
McCall Smith used to be the chairman of the Ethics Committee for the British Medical Journal. He was also the vice-chairman of the Human Genetics Commission in the United Kingdom. He was a member of the International Bioethics Committee for UNESCO. After becoming a successful writer, he stopped these roles to focus on his books.
Honours and Awards
McCall Smith received an award called a CBE in 2007. This was for his great work in literature. In 2024, he was given the title of Knight Bachelor. This means he is now called "Sir" for his contributions to literature, education, and charity.
In June 2007, the University of Edinburgh School of Law gave him an honorary degree. This was to celebrate 300 years of the law school. In 2015, he received another honorary degree from the University of St Andrews.
In 2009, he received the Golden Plate Award. This award was given by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in South Africa.
Personal Life
In 1984, Alexander McCall Smith settled in Edinburgh, Scotland. He and his wife, Elizabeth, who is a doctor, bought and fixed up a large Victorian house. They lived there for almost 30 years and raised their two daughters. Other famous authors like J. K. Rowling and Ian Rankin lived nearby.
He plays the bassoon as a hobby. He even helped start an orchestra called The Really Terrible Orchestra. He also helped create Botswana's first opera training center, the Number 1 Ladies' Opera House. He wrote the story for their first show, which was a version of Macbeth set with baboons in the Okavango Delta.
In 2014, McCall Smith bought the Cairns of Coll. These are small, uninhabited islands in Scotland. He said he wants to keep them wild and untouched forever. He hopes they will be a safe place for birds, seals, and other animals.
During a trip to New Zealand in 2014, he visited Rawene. His grandfather, George McCall Smith, worked there for 34 years as a doctor. He created the health service for the Hokianga area.
Writing Career
McCall Smith writes a lot of fiction books. He has created several popular series. He writes very quickly! Even when he travels, he writes between 2,000 and 3,000 words a day. When he is at home in Edinburgh, he can write up to 5,000 words a day. He usually writes about 1,000 words an hour.
He is most famous for his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. These books are about a detective named Mma Precious Ramotswe in Gaborone, Botswana. The first book in this series came out in 1998. By 2009, over 20 million copies of this series had been sold in English.
His publisher in Edinburgh says that he was a professor until 2005. Then, he decided to stop teaching and focus on writing full-time.
He published 30 books in the 1980s and 1990s before his famous detective series began. In 2008, he wrote a story online called Corduroy Mansions. It was published daily, like a newspaper story. He wrote many chapters ahead of time. He said it was "frightening" to create a novel while readers watched. He felt like "a man on a tightrope."
In 2009, he gave a short story called "Still Life" to Oxfam. This was for their "Ox-Tales" project, which was a collection of stories by British authors. McCall Smith's story was in the "Air" collection.
In 2020, he published a book of poems called In a Time of Distance: And Other Poems.
See Also
In Spanish: Alexander McCall Smith para niños
Images for kids
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McCall Smith speaking at the Library of Congress in 2019
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McCall Smith signing books in Helsinki in April 2007
