Meet Alexander in Glasgow The Department of Sensitive Crimes is a Scandinavian Blanc novel. Scandinavian Blanc is different from Scandinavian Noir: there is nothing noir about the world of Ulf Varg, a detective in the Sensitive Crimes Department in the Swedish city of Malmo. Ulf is concerned with very odd, but not too threatening crimes […]

Alexander McCall Smith is one of the world’s most prolific and best-loved authors. His highly successful series The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency sold over twenty million copies in the English language alone, and his books have become bestsellers throughout the world. For one afternoon only, McCall Smith joins forces with the BBC Symphony Orchestra to bring to […]

Blackwell’s are delighted to have Alexander McCall Smith joining us to talk about his latest book The Department of Sensitive Crimes, the first Detective Varg novel. The detectives who work in Malmo Police’s Department of Sensitive Crimes take their job very seriously. The lead detective, Ulf Varg, prioritizes his cases above even his dog’s mental health. […]

A number of Alexander McCall Smith’s books have been inspired by photographs or give photographs a central place in the narrative. In this talk he discusses how photographs may inspire the writing of fiction and how the well-conceived photograph may be as powerful an expression of feeling as a line of poetry. McCall Smith says: “I […]

 Alexander McCall Smith, Irvine Welsh and Kapka Kassabova in conversation with William Dalrymple at Jaipur Literary Festival, 2019 – the ‘greatest literary show on Earth’. Tickets and information here.