44 Scotland Street

“McCall Smith’s assessments of fellow humans are piercing and profound… . [His] depictions of Edinburgh are vivid and seamless.” –San Francisco Chronicle “[McCall Smith’s] accomplished novels … [are] dependent on small gestures redolent with meaning and main characters blessed with pleasing personalities… . .These novels are gentle probes into the mysteries of human nature.” –Newsday “McCall Smith’s writing … harks back to a more tranquil age, where gentle ironies and strict proprieties prevail… . The pleasure of the novel lies in its simplicity.” –The Independent (London)“Utterly enchanting … It is impossible to come away from an Alexander McCall Smith ‘mystery’ novel without a smile on the lips and warm fuzzies in the heart.” –Chicago Sun-Times “McCall Smith’s assessments of fellow humans are piercing and profound… . [His] depictions of Edinburgh are vivid and seamless.” –San Francisco Chronicle“McCall Smith’s generous writing and dry humor, his gentleness and humanity, and his ability to evoke a place and a set of characters without caricature or condescension have endeared his books … to readers.” –The New York Times“Pure joy… . The voice, the setting, the stories, the mysteries of human nature… . [McCall Smith’s] writing is accessible and the prose is beautiful.” –Amy Tan“[McCall Smith’s] accomplished novels … [are] dependent on small gestures redolent with meaning and main characters blessed with pleasing personalities … Not so much conventional mysteries, [his] novels are gentle probes into the mysteries of human nature.” –Newsday“Mr. Smith, a fine writer, paints his hometown of Edinburgh as indelibly as he captures the sunniness of Africa. We can almost feel the mists as we tread the cobblestones.” –The Dallas Morning News“Alexander McCall Smith has become one of those commodities, like oil or chocolate or money, where the supply is never sufficient to the demand… . [He] is prolific and habit-forming.” –The Globe and Mail (Toronto)“[McCall Smith] captures the cold, foggy, history-drenched atmosphere of Edinburgh … with a Jane Austen-like attention to detail.” –USA Today

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the huge international phenomenon, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, and The Sunday Philosophy Club series. He is a professor of medical law at Edinburgh University. He was born in what is now known as Zimbabwe and he was a law professor at the University of Botswana. He lives in Scotland.