All this unfolds against the sunlit background of Mma Ramotswe’s beloved homeland, Botswana–a land of empty spaces, echoing skies, and an endless supply of soothing bush tea.

MORE ABOUT == Alexander (R.A.A.) "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE, (born 24 August 1948) is a Zimbabwean-born Scottish writer and Emeritus Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. In the late 20th century, McCall Smith became a respected expert on medical law and bioethics and served on British and international committees concerned with these issues.

He has since become internationally known as a writer of fiction, with sales of English-language versions exceeding 40 million by 2010 and translations into 46 languages.

He is most widely known as the creator of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. "McCall" is not a middle name: his two-part surname is "McCall Smith".

Biography ==Alexander McCall Smith was born in Bulawayo, in what was then Southern Rhodesia and is now Zimbabwe.

His father worked as a public prosecutor in what was then a British colony.

He was educated at the Christian Brothers College before moving to Scotland to study law at the University of Edinburgh, where he received his Ph.D. in law.

He soon taught at Queen's University Belfast, and while teaching there he entered a literary competition: one a children's book and the other a novel for adults.

He won in the children's category, and published thirty books in the 1980s and 1990s.

He returned to southern Africa in 1981 to help co-found and teach law at the University of Botswana.

While there, he co-wrote what remains the only book on the country's legal system, The Criminal Law of Botswana (1992).

He returned in 1984 to Edinburgh, Scotland. He was Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh at one time and is now Emeritus Professor at its School of Law. He retains a further involvement with the University in relation to the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

He is the former chairman of the British Medical Journal Ethics Committee (until 2002), the former vice-chairman of the Human Genetics Commission of the United Kingdom, and a former member of the International Bioethics Commission of UNESCO. After achieving success as a writer, he gave up these commitments.

He was appointed a CBE in the December 2006 New Year's Honours List for services to literature.  In June 2007, he was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws at a ceremony celebrating the tercentenary of the University of  Edinburgh School of Law. He is an amateur bassoonist, and co-founder of The Really Terrible Orchestra.

He has helped to found Botswana's first centre for opera training, the Number 1 Ladies' Opera House, for whom he wrote the libretto of their first production, a version of Macbeth set among a troop of baboons in the Okavango Delta. 

He is also the author of a testimonial in The Future of the NHS (2006). 

His use of the serial format, in his Edinburgh and Pimlico novels, has revived the 19th-century format used by authors including Charles Dickens and Armistead Maupin.

In 2009, he donated the short story Still Life to Oxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project - four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors.

McCall Smith's story was published in the 'Air' collection.  Former American First Lady Laura Bush is a big fan of Smith's, as is Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Bibliography Overview of some of the authors books

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series

1998 The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency

2000 Tears of the Giraffe

2001 Morality for Beautiful Girls

2002 The Kalahari Typing School for Men

2003 The Full Cupboard of Life

2004 In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (also known as The Night-Time Dancer.)

2006 Blue Shoes and Happiness

2007 The Good Husband of Zebra Drive

2008 The Miracle at Speedy Motors

2009 Tea Time for the Traditionally Built

2010 The Double Comfort Safari Club

2010 Precious and the Puggies (novella for younger readers, first published in a Scots translation by James Robertson.)

2011: The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party

2012: The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

2013: The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon

2014: The Handsome Man's De Luxe Café

2015: The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine

2016: Precious and Grace

2017: The House of Unexpected Sisters

2018: The Colours of all the Cattle

The 2½ Pillars of Wisdom

2003 Portuguese Irregular Verbs

2003 The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs

2003 At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances

The Sunday Philosophy Club Series also known as Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries

2004 The Sunday Philosophy Club

2005 Friends, Lovers, Chocolate

2006 The Right Attitude to Rain

2007 The Careful Use of Compliments

2008 The Comfort of Saturdays (UK title) or The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday (American title)

2009: The Lost Art of Gratitude

2010: The Charming Quirks of Others

2011: The Forgotten Affairs of Youth

2012: The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds

2015: The Novel Habits of Happiness

2017: A Distant View of Everything (released 23 Mar 2017 in UK)

2018: The Quiet Side of Passion (released 7 Jun 2018 in UK)

44 Scotland Street Series

2005 44 Scotland Street

2005 Espresso Tales

2006 Love over Scotland

2007 The World According to Bertie

2008 The Unbearable Lightness of Scones

2010: The Importance of Being Seven

2011: Bertie Plays The Blues

2012: Sunshine on Scotland Street

2013: Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers

2015: The Revolving Door of Life

2016: The Bertie Project

2017: A Time of Love and Tartan Corduroy Mansions

2009 Corduroy Mansions

2009: The Dog Who Came in from the Cold

2011: A Conspiracy of Friends

Other novels

2008 La's Orchestra Saves the World

Short story collections

1991 Children of Wax: African Folk Tales

1995 Heavenly Date: And Other Flirtations

2004 The Girl Who Married a Lion: And Other Tales from Africa

Children's books

1984 The Perfect Hamburger

1988 Alix and the Tigers

1990 The Tin Dog

1991 Calculator Annie

1991 The Popcorn Pirates

1992 Akimbo and the Lions

1992 The Doughnut Ring

1993 Akimbo and the Crocodile Man

1994 Paddy and the Ratcatcher

1995 The Muscle Machine

1996 The Bubblegum Tree

1997 Bursting Balloons Mystery

1997 The Five Lost Aunts of Harriet Bean

1999 Chocolate Money Mystery

2000 Teacher Trouble

2005 Akimbo and the Elephants

2006 Dream Angus

2016: Freddie Mole, Lion Tamer

2018: Hari and his Electric Feet

2018: Max Champion and the Great Race Car Robbery

Akimbo

1992: Akimbo and the Lions

1993: Akimbo and the Crocodile Man

2005: Akimbo and the Elephants

2006: Akimbo and the Snakes

2008: Akimbo and the Baboons

Academic texts

1978 Power and Manoeuvrability (with Tony Carty)

1983 Law and Medical Ethics (with J Kenyon Mason) (this text has gone through several editions: a seventh, by Mason and Graeme Laurie, was published in 2006. McCall Smith contributed to all six previous editions.)

1987 Butterworths Medico-Legal Encyclopaedia (with J Kenyon Mason)

1990 Family Rights: Family Law and Medical Advances (with Elaine Sutherland)

1992 The Criminal Law of Botswana (with Kwame Frimpong)

1993 The Duty to Rescue (with Michael Menlowe, 1993)

1992 Scots Criminal Law (with David H Sheldon, second edition published 1997)

1997 Forensic Aspects of Sleep (with Colin Shapiro)

2000 Justice and the Prosecution of Old Crimes (with Daniel W Shuman)

2001 Errors, Medicine and the Law (with Alan Merry)

2003 A Draft Criminal Code for Scotland (with Eric Clive, Pamela Ferguson and Christopher Gane)

2004 Creating Humans: Ethical questions where reproduction and science collide (collected lectures, audio recordings)