Saturday, December 05, 2015

My bookshelf: Alexander McCall Smith

"I'll write 3,000 to 4,000 words in a day" Credit: Alexander McCall Smith

Growing up in Zimbabwe was a great adventure,  but I didn’t see it as such. I spent my entire childhood in Africa. I couldn’t have written The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books, which are set in Botswana, without the affection that gave me.

The first book I owned as  a child was called The Boys’ Book of Merchant Shipping.  It was full of pictures of ships with their tonnage. It must have been the most boring book imaginable, but I loved  it to pieces. I slept with it  under my pillow. I studied law at Edinburgh University, and then got my first job at Queen’s University  in Belfast. It was at the height  of the Troubles: bombs were going off, you’d hear gunfire. There, I discovered Irish writers such as Brian Moore, who helped me understand  the city.

If I’m working at full tilt,  I’ll write 3,000 to 4,000 words in a day. It just comes to me.  I break the rules: you’re only supposed to write one book  a year or every two years. [This year, he has published six.]     More

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