I’m on my seventh Isabel Dalhousie novel: Alexander McCall Smith (Interview)

JAIPUR - Celebrated Scottish writer Alexander McCall Smith, who admits to being an R.K. Narayan fan, says he has started working on his seventh novel in the Isabel Dalhousie series. The thrillers feature the Edinburgh-based sleuth who loves solving problems in a rather complex and moral kind of way.

“Right now, I am concentrating on my Scotland Street novels and the serial Dalhousie thrillers. My new Isabel Dalhousie novel is set in Edinburgh, but I cannot disclose the story now. My story always changes when I write. I have a basic idea, but it will take unexpected turns,” McCall Smith told IANS at the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival.

“It will take me three months to complete the book,” he said.

Smith, born in 1948 in Zimbabwe, is a man for all seasons. A former emeritus professor of medical law at the University of Edinburgh, Smith writes crime fiction, thrillers, non-fictions on Africa and pens lyrics for orchestra.

He is most widely known for his “No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series” with its protagonist Precious Ramotswe, an amateur-turned professional detective, set in Botswana.

“I lived in Botswana in 1981 and then moved back to Scotland again. But I have never been able to get over Botswana. I go back every year. I felt writing about a woman manning a detective agency would best represent the composite culture of the country. You can put in a wide cast of characters,” McCall Smith said.

The writer said the idea to create a woman sleuth “came about after speaking to several people in course of my visit to South Africa”.

Smith says he does not follow contemporary trends in detective fiction despite his popular whodunit novels.

“I really have not been influenced by detective fiction. But I love R.K. Narayan’s Malgudi novels. I recently wrote an introduction to a reprint of one of his novels in the US. He is an amazing writer,” Smith said.

The creator of Precious Ramotswe loves reading Graham Greene and W.H. Auden. “Auden’s wonderful human voice moves me. The range of his poetry is wide,” Smith said.

Smith is devoted to music - having helped set up Botswana’s first opera training centre - “The Number 1 Ladies Opera House”. An amateur bassoonist, Smith also co-founded the Really Terrible Orchestra in Edinburgh in Scotland.

“I composed a libretto for an opera known as the ‘Okavango Macbeth’ in the north of Botswana. It was a take on Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ set in the delta of the Okavango river among baboons and performed by local African singers. The idea was to give the local inhabitants an opportunity to train in opera music. We converted a garage into an opera theatre to seat 60 people for 10 days,” Smith said.

Smith said “he composed his musical act among baboons because they were a highly competitive species”.

“The apes are almost like Lady Macbeth who shed her scruples to achieve her ends. The baboons can go to any length,” Smith said.

The writer is also working on a new opera score with Scottish composer Tom Cunningham.

“Three of my new musical pieces ‘Scotland at Night’ have been released recently as a CD. The lyrics are about Scotland at night,” Smith said.