Alexander McCall Smith

R. Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE (born 24 August 1948), is a British 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 The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. "McCall" is not a middle name: his surname is "McCall Smith". 2Early life Alexander McCall Smith was born in Bulawayo in 1948 in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe), where his father worked as a public prosecutor. He was educated at the Christian Brothers College before moving to Scotland to study law at the University of Edinburgh, where he earned his PhD 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 categor