Alexander McCall Smith: CLA Annual Conference

The opening session started with a few words from CLA President Danis Kreimeier and by the Pasadena Mayor.  A number of awards were given out, including CLA Member of the Year (awarded to Ann Turner from Santa Cruz), the President’s Award, and the Zoia Horn Intellectual Freedom Award (couldn’t catch the name of the people who won the last two…if anyone did, please comment).  The main speaker, novelist Alexander McCall Smith, was then introduced.

McCall Smith walked on stage in a stunning kilt :)  Whoo hah!  He was very engaging, telling funny stories about etiquette, and then said he was here to talk about books, so he supposed he should probably say something about books then.  He then confessed that he suffers from “serial novelism,” a condition for which there is no cure.  His first book was a children’s book, Akimbo and the Elephants.  He then started writing more Akimbo titles (Akimbo and the Lions, Akimbo and the Crocodile Man, etc.).  He had considered killing Akimbo off so he could stop writing, but the publishers advised that children don’t like it when the heroic characters are killed. 

He then spoke of his No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, noting that he could have made it a Drycleaner Agency series, but decided against it, though he does say that a drycleaner series could have great potential in the literary market.  He wrote the first book while house-swapping with friends for holiday, during which time he found two worm-infested cats at the house (which he named Horrible and Terrible (say it with a French accent).  The first No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency book became a series (he joked) because he kept postponing the inevitable marriage that was alluded to in the first book.  He just finished volume seven, which will be published next spring. 

He spoke about Marcel Proust, and noted that if you purchase the concordance to Proust’s works, you can look up his views on various topics without (nicely) having to actually read Proust. 

He also mentioned his other series, and told us a bit about each of them, sharing funny moments from the books (not reading from the book, just paraphrasing and telling stories, which I found refreshing).

I’m somewhat abashed to admit that I’ve never read any of McCall Smith’s work (I’m not big into detective series), but I think that McCall Smith would be a fun person to have dinner with...a very good storyteller and quick-witted speaker.  I get the sense that there is a lot of incredible intelligence hiding behind his joking demeanor and laughing eyes.  I may now be convinced to read a few of his books!