Former Chairman of British Medical Journal Ethics Committee, former member of the International Bioethics Commission of the UNESCO, Professor Emeritus at the School of law, University of Edinburgh and many others in the same vein. No mean achievements, but few will recognise best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith through them. They are more familiar with Precious Ramotswe, the first woman detective in Botswana, the protagonist of The No. 1 Ladies? Detective Agency. McCall?s gentle prose has captivated audiences globally, his works are already available in 45 languages. Suman Tarafdar caught up with the unassuming author, who was nevertheless one of the most sought after at the Jaipur Literature Festival. Excerpts:
Did you have any idea your books would be such a success?
I had no idea in the beginning that it would take off in this way. I really enjoyed writing. I had been writing children?s books, about 30, since I was in my ?20s, besides short stories and plays. I had entered literary competitions earlier, which are a great way of starting a literary career. When I wrote The No. 1 Ladies? Detective Agency, I thought that was it. I found that once I had written the second one, I thought I could continue. However, initially nothing really happened to the books till about two years after publication. Then they took off, beginning with the US. Now they are available in 45 languages! In India, we also have Tamil and Marathi versions.
I am thrilled that the books are popular in India. I owe a great debt to RK Narayan. He should have got the Nobel Prize. There was lovely simplicity, beautiful and natural prose. He is one of my main literary influences.
Do you often get asked why you depict Africa in a certain way?
I am not writing social realism. There are other writers who are doing that very well. I am writing really about human nature. People say it is an unrealistic vision of Africa, sanitised. I do not think so. My books do deal with people?s hopes and fears. What I am saying is you can set a book about general human nature in sub-Saharan Africa. They are not very different from my books set in Scotland. People say you are not portraying all the problems that Scotland has, because we?ve got problems like everywhere else. They say I am writing bourgeoisie middle-class presentation. What can one say?
You started your career as a writer pretty late, but you have been very prolific. What is the process like?
I am aware of my good fortune in the sense that I am very conscious of how lucky I am to sit here. However, I do not believe in over-analysing. Once you start analysing, you start to lose spontaneity. I do go into a sort of detached stage. I do not have to say what the end is. It just comes from the sub-conscious mind. I have a composer friend who hears music in his mind and can score music. That is mind-blowing to me and I would love to be able to do that. I hear rhythms of prose. I hear a beat and the words fit into the rhythms.
What interests you more, plot or character?
I do not worry much about twists. I am more driven by portrayals of character than by plot. Plot in my case is secondary. I am character driven. And place. I am interested in settings. I try to convey a setting in very few words. I describe the sky and people try to picture what I am talking about. My books have a lot of descriptions of the sky, clouds and that creates an atmosphere.
How crucial is Africa for you?
I probably could not have written about Africa unless I had spent my childhood in Zimbabwe. My work is set either in Botswana or in Scotland. It took me some time before I felt I could set things in Scotland because I really didn?t have the right voice for my Scottish writing. I have set stuff in Australia as well. I find that I like different places. I find India very interesting. It is a very fascinating country. As an outsider you would have to spend a lifetime before you really know what was going on.
I am out of touch with Zimbabwe. All that I can say is that Africa has had so many misfortunes, and many of the sub-Saharan countries have had very bad experiences in the past couple of decades. Just as they were conquered by infectious diseases, along comes AIDS and sets everybody back, really, really substantially. But I do not believe in being pessimistic. The only way forward is engagement. I am very happy that these books about Botswana have persuaded people to engage with sub-Saharan countries.
Your impressions of India?
I have been in India about five times. Last year, I was at the Calcutta Book Fair. In India, the vivid nature of the settings strike one intensely. What I like is that people in India still believe in conversation, which is really nice. If I really travel on a train in the UK, for example, people do not speak to one another any more. But that?s not the case in India.
How goes The Really Terrible Orchestra?
The Really Terrible Orchestra, as the names suggests ?we are very very bad. We sound flat very soon, and funny, but it?s a great success. We have about 60 members now. We?ve become very popular. In Botswana, I set up a little opera house in a converted garage. I am trying to support musical activity in Botswana. There is a great tradition of singing as is often the case in sub-Saharan countries. I have written a libretto for it.
You have written just two novels, while the others are series. How different are they?
It is different, quite refreshing to be able to spend time on one when one is involved with series. I would do more of that. With a novel, you have to introduce the characters. While writing a series, one of the challenges is not to repeat yourselves. You know that some readers will be coming to you fresh, you provide them with the least sufficient information, but you do not want to bore the existing reader, so that requires quite a light touch.