Alexander McCall Smith

Sir Alexander McCall Smith (born Rodney Alexander Alasdair McCall Smith on 1948-08-24) is a Scottish legal scholar and prolific author best known for The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. Born in Bulawayo (then Southern Rhodesia), he was Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh before becoming a full-time writer. His work spans crime fiction, contemporary and literary fiction, children’s books and academic non-fiction; his novels have been translated into dozens of languages and have sold millions of copies worldwide. He co-founded The Really Terrible Orchestra and has been involved in cultural projects in Botswana, including founding a centre for opera training. He was appointed CBE (2007) and was knighted in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to literature, academia and charity.