Born in Zimbabwe, Alexander McCall Smith is Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of over 50 books, including children's stories and several collections of short stories. With the No. 1 Ladies' Detective series he has achieved great acclaim with two Booker Judges' Special Recommendations, voted one of the "International Books of the Year and the Millennium" by the Times Literary Supplement and won the Saga Award for Wit in 2003. In 2004 he was the winner of three Author of the Year awards.