:00:00. > :00:08.Another chance to see Meet The Author, with Alexander McCall Smith.
:00:09. > :00:11.Alexander McCall Smith is as popular as he is prolific.
:00:12. > :00:13.When Mma Ramotswe first appeared as the proprietrix of the No.
:00:14. > :00:16.1 Ladies Detectives Agency of Botswana, solving every day
:00:17. > :00:18.problems with an unruffled determination that never flags,
:00:19. > :00:22.she became an instant friend to readers around the world.
:00:23. > :00:26.Precious and Grace is the 17th book in the series, alongside
:00:27. > :00:29.there are the 11 volumes and the 44 Scotland Street books,
:00:30. > :00:33.written as a newspaper serial, and the Isabel Dalhousie stories,
:00:34. > :00:39.where the author can indulge through Isabel his love of WH Auden.
:00:40. > :00:42.He is one of our most popular writers.
:00:43. > :01:03.Why do you think Mma Ramotswe became such a close and intimate friend
:01:04. > :01:09.I think it is something to do with her character.
:01:10. > :01:13.She's a very gentle, understanding woman and I think that
:01:14. > :01:18.readers like to be in the company of somebody whom they like, somebody
:01:19. > :01:21.they feel they would like to sit down in real life with and enjoy
:01:22. > :01:29.Well, you illustrate there one of the qualities that people
:01:30. > :01:35.A sort of placid kind of life, which is the kind of life
:01:36. > :01:39.Now, it's not devoid of excitement, it is not devoid of drama.
:01:40. > :01:40.They are somehow domestic dramas, aren't they?
:01:41. > :01:46.I think people respond quite well to that, in that, most of us lead
:01:47. > :01:52.Most of us lead lives in which nothing really
:01:53. > :01:54.spectacular happens, there are not constant explosions
:01:55. > :02:01.So, we rather like to spend time, in the fictional sense,
:02:02. > :02:07.I think that you can, in very gentle fiction,
:02:08. > :02:10.you can make big points about the world.
:02:11. > :02:14.You can say things about some of the profound issues that we face.
:02:15. > :02:17.But do it in a rather gentle way, and in a sense you make more
:02:18. > :02:22.of a point with people if you do that.
:02:23. > :02:25.If, for example, you use humour to make a point, you are more likely
:02:26. > :02:32.It is a country of which you have become fond -
:02:33. > :02:39.And the reason why I wrote these books is because it
:02:40. > :02:43.I was so impressed with it and found that I liked and admired it.
:02:44. > :02:46.And I stood in admiration of a country which has been
:02:47. > :02:48.in rather difficult circumstances, in that it was
:02:49. > :02:54.But it managed to maintain its integrity.
:02:55. > :02:57.It approached life in a quiet and organised way and I was just
:02:58. > :02:59.very taken by the politeness, the courtesy of the people,
:03:00. > :03:11.I felt this was an island of peace, tranquillity and wisdom, in a sense.
:03:12. > :03:14.You describe there very clearly your own style.
:03:15. > :03:17.And if you take, for example, the 44 Scotland Street stories,
:03:18. > :03:23.set in a tenement block in Edinburgh, your own city,
:03:24. > :03:25.where the doings of the various people who live on different floors
:03:26. > :03:32.It is a particular kind of fiction that you enjoy,
:03:33. > :03:35.the sort of parting the lace curtains and having a peak.
:03:36. > :03:38.Yes, I suppose you could call it social comedy.
:03:39. > :03:40.Social fiction, looking at the lives of people,
:03:41. > :03:43.looking their quirks, their little ways and having fun
:03:44. > :03:49.with them, and I enjoy that very much indeed.
:03:50. > :03:51.Because we are all absurd to a greater or lesser
:03:52. > :03:55.We can make terrific mountains out of molehills
:03:56. > :03:59.You made a big mountain out of all these molehills.
:04:00. > :04:06.The Scotland Street series has been running and running.
:04:07. > :04:10.1 Ladies Detective Agency is now in its 17th volume.
:04:11. > :04:13.You also have the Isabel Dalhousie novels.
:04:14. > :04:15.Now, she's very interesting because I always think there's a lot
:04:16. > :04:20.of you in there because she is mad about Auden, as you are.
:04:21. > :04:23.I find it extraordinary, but I agree with Isabel Dalhousie
:04:24. > :04:34.Of course you don't have to scratch very hard to see
:04:35. > :04:38.Well, your enthusiasm for Auden is well known to people
:04:39. > :04:45.What is it about Auden that's always moved you?
:04:46. > :04:50.Well, Auden, I think, is just such a wonderful humane voice.
:04:51. > :04:52.I remember when I first started reading Auden's
:04:53. > :04:57.poetry many years ago, I was so rested by it.
:04:58. > :05:00.I was struck by the stength of the ideas, the complexity
:05:01. > :05:03.of the ideas and the beauty of the language.
:05:04. > :05:06.So he's a poet who manages to say the most profound things
:05:07. > :05:10.about life in a very, very beautiful way.
:05:11. > :05:15.That is an enormous breadth, as you say.
:05:16. > :05:26.And you are a polymath in many ways because you're an academic
:05:27. > :05:28.in the medical law field and then you suddenly discovered that
:05:29. > :05:31.writing was more or less taking over your life.
:05:32. > :05:33.You were producing three, four, five books a year.
:05:34. > :05:36.How do you manage to organise your life to do that?
:05:37. > :05:40.Well, you have to be quite careful about organisation if you are doing
:05:41. > :05:44.I have a season for each of the series.
:05:45. > :05:48.There'll be a period of a few months where I know I have to write
:05:49. > :05:54.You know that is the time when this will be done
:05:55. > :06:02.The one thing that I think you can't do, as an author,
:06:03. > :06:04.is wait for inspiration to strike you.
:06:05. > :06:06.You can't wait for the news to appear.
:06:07. > :06:13.She may appear once you've sat down and once you're working,
:06:14. > :06:15.you play suddenly realise that the muse has
:06:16. > :06:24.Looking at the type of books you read yourself and admire,
:06:25. > :06:26.I know that an author whom you particularly admire,
:06:27. > :06:29.who perhaps hasn't had the attention that many people think she deserves
:06:30. > :06:32.What is it about Barbara Pym's books you like?
:06:33. > :06:35.Perhaps it ties in with something you said earlier on about
:06:36. > :06:38.Barbara Pym is concerned with very small matters.
:06:39. > :06:41.The calm exploration of small matters.
:06:42. > :06:46.She really was the 20th century Jane Austen.
:06:47. > :06:48.Capable of saying very big things about people
:06:49. > :06:53.So she would have a character, for example, saying,
:06:54. > :06:56.as happens in one of her books, a character saying, "I never thought
:06:57. > :07:04.I was the sort of person who would deserve my own bathroom."
:07:05. > :07:08.Poignancy is something that I think you've got
:07:09. > :07:13.a very strong feeling for, the sadness of things that
:07:14. > :07:16.happen in every day life, the lack of fulfilment in some small
:07:17. > :07:18.way that adds up to, you know, disappointment,
:07:19. > :07:36.I find myself very moved by certain things.
:07:37. > :07:39.1 Ladies Detectives Agency series, Mma Mukutsi, who has had
:07:40. > :07:41.a very poor background, has a beautiful little lace
:07:42. > :07:44.handkerchief and that represents everything she would like to have
:07:45. > :07:54.So I find myself very moved by that sort of thing.
:07:55. > :08:02.Almost as many, getting on that way, in 44 Scotland Street.
:08:03. > :08:04.Can you see yours carrying on forever?
:08:05. > :08:13.I remember you telling me a story about being on a plane and sitting
:08:14. > :08:15.opposite somebody on a transatlantic flight who was finishing one
:08:16. > :08:22.of your books and saying, "Oh, dear, oh dear."
:08:23. > :08:24.Not realising you were there and you leaned over
:08:25. > :08:27.and as you were getting off and said, "Don't worry.
:08:28. > :08:29.There'll be another one along in a minute."
:08:30. > :08:31.I was, as it happens, on that flight I was writing
:08:32. > :08:35.the next one in that series as this person was reading the previous one.
:08:36. > :08:37.You could have sent her an e-mail with the thing.
:08:38. > :08:39.Alexander McCall Smith, thank you very much.