Author's awful orchestra is hitting all the wrong notes

Don't expect Last Night of the Proms at this Fringe gig.

ALEXANDER McCall Smith sat in the orchestra playing his bassoon with gusto, but noticed the sound coming from another musician didn't seem quite right.

It wasn't sharp or flat or out of time. He looked over to see that his fellow musician was actually playing a completely different tune.

Dissolving into fits of giggles as he recalls the story, the Merchiston-based best-selling author reveals: "He was struggling to make sense of it but nevertheless he carried on till the end."

McCall Smith, 59, best known for his warm, witty No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series set in Botswana, says it was one of the worst – or best – moments he has had as founding member of the Really Terrible Orchestra, an amateur group of useless musicians, some of whom can't play any more than four notes.

"We are all pretty ropey," he admits. "People will pay to see us because they love to see people struggling, things collapsing and people finishing at different times."

Yet the Really Terrible Orchestra has been a sell-out at the Fringe and elsewhere. Even under the distinguished baton of professional conductor Richard Neville-Towle, they play pretty badly.

"Sometimes there are people who come to the concerts who have never heard of us, so they are not sure what to expect. You see their expression changing as they suddenly get the joke."

His wife, retired doctor Elizabeth, plays the E-flat horn "very flat" he observes. But his daughters, Lucy and Emily, both medical students, have decided it's not their bag.

The idea came about several years ago when the couple decided they wanted to set up an orchestra which put no pressure on the musicians. They could be as bad as they liked. It soon became a roaring success and provided a great social outlet – two members who met through the group have married and recently had a baby.

His music may not be all that brilliant, but his No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels featuring female detective Precious Ramotswe have sold in their millions. Earlier this year they were brought to TV in the eponymous film, featuring American singer Jill Scott as Mma Ramotswe and directed by the late Anthony Minghella.

"There's going to be a 13-part BBC television series which will be terrific," McCall Smith enthuses. "They are starting filming in September in Botswana."

McCall Smith's other novel series, about the goings-on at 44 Scotland Street, involving a precocious six-year-old boy with an overbearing mother – of which the fifth, The Unbearable Lightness Of Scones, has just been published – are also hugely popular.

The author spends six months of the year abroad on book tours. He's off to America in September, then Denmark – and has recently returned from Botswana where he opened the No. 1 Ladies' Opera House, which he funded and set up with a musician friend.

"It's in a converted garage," he explains. "During the day it's a cafe and restaurant, and in the evening it seats 60 for concerts. The point is that it provides a stage for local singers and they are great singers in Botswana."

McCall Smith was born in Zimbabwe, the son of a public prosecutor, and spent his childhood in Africa, later moving to the Capital and becoming professor of medical law at Edinburgh University.

His writing career began with children's books and short stories. But it wasn't until he turned 50 that his No.1 Detective Agency series was launched, introducing Ramotswe, a woman he describes as "traditionally built" (meaning large).

"I had lived in Botswana when I was seconded to the university there in 1981 and I got to know the country. I remember seeing a woman in a place called Mochudi just chasing a chicken around her yard, which lodged an idea in my mind about somebody like that.

"I had no idea that it was going to lead to anything more than a short story. It took off in the United States first and then everything snowballed and the books became popular internationally.

"I just write the books I want to write. The books represent a positive portrayal of one particular African country. I stand by that, because people look at sub-Saharan Africa and say, 'What a terrible mess!'

"But the problems are not the creation of the long-suffering ordinary people who have great qualities and virtues."

Botswana, he points out, is the most successful country in Africa, enjoying independence since 1966, with free elections and observing the rule of law, unlike its troubled neighbour, Zimbabwe.

His novels are an antidote to the constant turmoil which prevails in parts of Africa.

"They aren't books in which all sorts of things happen," he says. "There's no violence. People yearn for kindness in their lives and Mma Ramotswe is a kind person."

He writes every day, although admits he's not always as productive as he once was.

"I used to write 4000 words a day. When I'm in top gear I still do that. At the moment I'm writing 2000-3000 as I'm working on another novel which I should finish at the end of July called La's Orchestra Saves The World."

Set in Suffolk, it centres on a woman who has an amateur orchestra which is disbanded during the Second World War and then comes together again in 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis.

"It's really about the healing power of music," he says. "My experience playing in an amateur orchestra is pretty relevant."

• The Unbearable Lightness Of Scones, by Alexander McCall Smith, published by Polygon, is out now, priced £14.99.

WRITE STUFF
ALEXANDER McCall Smith is one of the most prolific of today's best-selling writers.

As well as writing ten of his No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels in the last 10 years, he has also produced three instalments of his Professor Dr von Igelfeld series, five Sunday Philosophy Club novels and five collections of 44 Scotland Street.

He has continued to write short stories, such as The Girl Who Married a Lion: And Other Tales from Africa, and the Akimbo series for children.