ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH

The medical law professor and author is back with a collection of stories about intrigue and espionage

Is there a book that made you love writing?

As a boy I loved Rudyard Kipling’s Rikki-tikki-tavi. I knew it more or less off by heart.

What’s the best book you’ve read?

Shakespeare’s Sonnets is a work to which one can return time and time again.

A book that had a pivotal impact on your life?

I have been deeply affected by WH Auden’s Collected Shorter Poems and, indeed, by all of Auden’s works. Auden had a wonderful humane voice and his range as a poet was extraordinary. I constantly turn to that book.

The book you couldn’t finish?

I very much enjoyed Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy, but it is very long and I kept getting interrupted – as a result, I never finished it, but I hope to.

A book you wish you had read but haven’t got to?

There are various Russian novels that we all feel we should have read … I suppose one day I shall read War and Peace!

The book you are most proud to have written?

I think that must be The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, the first volume in the Mma Ramotswe series. When I wrote that book I had no idea that it would turn into such a long-running series.

Your earliest reading memory?

I had a funny little book called The Boys’ Book of Merchant Shipping. I loved it dearly when I was about four.

I prefer printed books, but there are some wonderful audio books. For example, Stephen Fry’s magnificent series on Greek myths, Mythos: The Greek Myths Reimagined.

How do you read books? Your favourite place to read?

On the sofa in my study. I enjoy reading over breakfast, too.

What book do you re-read?

There are two writers whom I reread. I have read Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honour trilogy many times. The story of Guy Crouchback and his experiences is, I think, Waugh’s greatest work. I also like to re-read EF Benson’s Mapp and Lucia novels. These, in my opinion, are amongst the finest achievements in comic art in the English language.

What books are on your bedside table?

Matthew Hollis’ The Wasteland: A Biography of a Poem, which is all about TS Eliot’s famous composition. I am also reading Fred Uhlman’s novel, Reunion.

What are you writing now?

I am working on a new series that I have called The

Perfect Passion Company, about an Edinburgh introduction agency. The Private Life of Spies, by Alexander Mccall Smith:

Hachette, $35