Alexander mccall smith author biography formation

According to his publisher in Edinburgh, "He was, untila professor of medical law at the University of Edinburgh, but gave up the position to concentrate on his writing and now writes full time. He published 30 books in the s and s before he began the series that has brought him the world's notice. He wrote more than ten chapters ahead of publication, finding the experience of serialised publication to be "a frightening thing to create a novel while his readers watched.

In he donated the short story "Still Life" to Oxfam 's " Ox-Tales " project, comprising four collections of stories written by 38 British authors. McCall Smith's story was published in the "Air" collection. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item.

Alexander McCall Smith's voice. Early life [ edit ]. Professional career [ edit ]. Honours [ edit ]. Personal life [ edit ]. Writing career [ edit ]. Bibliography [ edit ]. Main article: Alexander McCall Smith bibliography. See also [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. The Independent. Archived from the original on 21 June Retrieved 26 August The Telegraph.

Retrieved 15 October To say McCall Smith is a literary phenomenon doesn't quite describe what has happened. Just Buffalo Literary Center. Buffalo, New York. Retrieved 1 December The adolescent brain is very badly wired. So at 16 I took myself terrifically seriously.

Alexander mccall smith author biography formation

And no one else did. Get the latest news and insight into how the Big Issue magazine is made by signing up for the Inside Big Issue newsletter. I lived in a town called Bulawayo, which was in Zimbabwe. It was very remote, a colonial territory in colonial days. It was a very quiet existence. I was very interested in writing. I had always written as a child.

I had an article published in the local paper when I was about 16, a piece about Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. I think I was a pretty typical teenager. I read quite a lot. And I had a strong imaginative life. I spent quite a lot of time in my own company, thinking. I had the idea that I would love to write one day but it was very underdeveloped.

I read a lot of poetry, which was probably atypical. And I had a pile of old copies of The Listener magazine. I used to go through those time and time again. I was very self-consciously intellectual. I regarded myself as knowing more than the other boys at school. I decided that I would study law. So I went to Edinburgh university.

Then I was offered the chance to study for a PhD. So I went off to Belfast at a very difficult time. The Troubles were in a very serious state. It was a really significant time, living through a period of great sadness in a society that was torn by terrible divisions and basically a low-grade civil war. You heard explosions, you heard gunfire.

But you just lived with it. There were moments when the situation was highly intriguing, and then there were other times when it was just tragic. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikidata item. Professor Dr von Igelfeld Entertainments series [ edit ].

The No. The Sunday Philosophy Club series [ edit ]. Corduroy Mansions series [ edit ]. Paul Stewart series [ edit ]. Detective Varg series [ edit ]. Perfect Passion Company series [ edit ]. Other novels [ edit ].