Jaipur Literature Festival with Alexander McCall Smith on Female Characters

Sidney Sheldon's female protagonists had long hair, longer limbs and an IQ of 170. Nicholas Sparks introduced his female protagonists by remarking on the roundness of her breasts and the flatness of her stomach.

But not Scottish author and Emeritus Professor of Medical Law at University of Edinburgh Alexander McCall Smith who, despite having written 16 novels in The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, seems to have stayed away from female cliche every single time. By training, Smith is an expert on medical law (he has a PhD in law after all) and bioethics, but it is as an author of fiction that he has found cult following. His books are set in Botswana and his lead female character, Precious Ramotswe, has great resourcefulness and an intuitive understanding of people, rather than more 'physical' assets.

But not Alexander McCall Smith. The writer of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency talks about what he loves most in female protagonists - kindness. And how that, literally and figuratively, shapes them.

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