This year, the much-loved Alexander McCall Smith has hit a purple patch and has written even more books than ever. There’s The Joy and Light Bus Company – a new title in the phenomenal No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, while Your Inner Hedgehog is a Professor von Igelfeld Entertainment – the first in that series for a decade. Alongside that – and published during the Festival – there’s a standalone novel, The Pavilion in the Clouds, set in the tea plantations of Sri Lanka. And while all of McCall Smith’s novels are packed with humour, perhaps the funniest are his ‘Scandi Blanc’ series featuring Detective Varg. This summer Varg stars in The Man with the Silver Saab. But when it comes to Book Festival events, it doesn’t matter so much whether you’re a McCall Smith completist or just opening up your first Mma Ramotswe story. Spending an hour with the Edinburgh writer is simply a journey into a world of essential human kindness: a breath of fresh Scottish air.

This is a live event, with an author Q&A. If buying a ticket to watch the event in-person, the author will be on stage, in the venue. Also available as a live stream and digitally on-demand until 30th September.

https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/alexander-mccall-smith-human-kindness