“It was time to take the pumpkin out of the pot and eat it. In the final analysis, that was what solved these big problems of life. You could think and think and get nowhere, but you still had to eat your pumpkin. That brought you down to earth. That gave you a reason for going on. Pumpkin.”

Rhodesian, Zimbabwean, and Scottish legal scholar and novelist

Sir Alexander McCall Smith is a Rhodesian, Zimbabwean, and Scottish legal scholar and writer of fiction. Born and raised in Southern Rhodesia, he taught medical law at the University of Edinburgh and built a career in law and bioethics before becoming widely known as a novelist. He became an expert in medical law and bioethics and served on British and international committees in those fields. He is best known as the creator of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, and his fiction has sold widely in English and been translated into many languages.