McCall Smith to visit Scotland Street again

Published on 03/07/2006 01:33

ALEXANDER McCall Smith is to write a fourth volume of his best-selling series 44 Scotland Street, which has now sold more than half a million copies worldwide.

Readers of The Scotsman will, as ever, get the first chance to enjoy the series, which will start running as a "daily novel" in the newspaper in October.

Worldwide interest in the series looks set to increase further next year, when Portman Films is planning to make a TV series based on McCall Smith's gentle comedies of New Town Edinburgh life. Scripts have been written and await approval.

Love Over Scotland, the third book in the series, goes on sale this month.

Readers will recognise the Edinburgh chartered surveyor who dreams of membership of Scotland's most exclusive golf club, the pushy Stockbridge mother and her prodigiously talented five-year-old son.

McCall Smith, a practising professor of medical law, has written more than 50 books, ranging from children's fiction to folk tales to the criminal law of Botswana.

The author is perhaps best known for his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.

To launch Love over Scotland, a celebratory event will be held at the offices of The Scotsman on Wednesday 26 July, when McCall Smith will explain why he enjoys writing the series, outline what might happen in the new book, and answer questions from the audience.

Money raised from ticket sales and from the auction of prints by Iain McIntosh which accompany McCall Smith's daily novel in The Scotsman, will go towards the Scottish Book Trust, a charity of which he is patron. The proceeds will be spent on a project called Reading Rich, which aims to introduce reading as part of everyday life for children in residential or foster care across Scotland by finding out their interests, providing them with their own book collection and introducing them to Scottish writers.

Tickets, costing 8, are available on a first-come, first-served basis by phoning 0131-620 8400 from noon today.

• Scotsman readers who want to buy Love Over Scotland at a discounted rate of 11.99 should e-mail [e-mail] or call 0131-667 7799, quoting Scot44.