Alexander McCall Smith is one of the world’s most prolific and popular authors. His career has been a varied one: for many years he was a professor of medical law and worked in universities in the United Kingdom and abroad. After the publication of his highly successful No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, which has sold over twenty million copies, he devoted his time to writing fiction and has seen his various series translated into over forty languages and become bestsellers through the world. McCall Smith won the prestigious The Dagger in the Library Award in 2004, an award bestowed by the Crime Writers' Association.
Sir Timothy Ackroyd began his career as an actor in 1979 at Southwold summer theatre, a weekly repertory theatre company. He went on to play in many West End productions through the years, notably Macbeth at The Old Vic, Man and Superman at The Theatre Royal Haymarket and Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell at The Apollo. His narration work includes A Christmas Carol and The Signalman by Charles Dickens, Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome, short stories by Stacy Aumonier and Saki as well as most recently My Italian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith.