Maleny, Queensland is a upcountry town of around 4,000 inhabitants. And yet it seems to attract very prestigious world famous authors and thinkers to come and speak. This weekend we are grateful Clive and Elizabeth invited us to hear Alexander McCall Smith speak. It was a fantastic evening and we were entertained with many stories of Smith’s life and about the characters in his many books. The following is a Wikipedia account of his accomplishments in literature.
McCall Smith is a prolific author of fiction, with several series to his credit. He writes at a prodigious rate: “Even when travelling, he never loses a day, turning out between 2,000 and 3,000 words [a day] – but more like 5,000 words when at home in Edinburgh. His usual rate is 1,000 words an hour.”[2] He has gained the most fame for his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, featuring Mma Precious Ramotswe and set in Gaborone, Botswana. The first novel was published in 1998. By 2009, the No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series had sold more than 20 million copies in English editions.[2]
