AUTHOR
He grew up in Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia, before moving to Scotland to study. As well as working on the criminal law of Botswana, he helped set up the country's law faculty at University.
For a long time he has been a professor of medical law in Edinburgh, an international authority in genetics, and advisor to UNESCO and the British Government on bioethics.
He has written more than sixty books ranging from refernce works to children's titles.
In 1998 he wrote The No 1 Ladies' detective Agency,a novel about Precious Ramotswe, an amateur sleuch turned professional detective in Botswana. It became the first of a series of novels which have since become extremely popular worldwide. But the success of the books as not changed his personality. He tries to lead the same sort of life he used to, though that is not always possible. He reckons he has lost control of his own time, to an extent, and he supposes he has also lost a degree of privacy.
Today McCall Smith lives in Edinburgh with his wife Elizabeth (an Edinburgh doctor), their two daughters Lucy and Emily, and their cat Gordon.
His hobbies include playing wind instruments, and he is co-founder of an amateur orchestra. This orchestra is pretty awful, and that is why it bears the name "The Really Terrible Orchestra" in which he plays the bassoon and his wife plays the flute.Mariana Tiseyra Ellena