Everyday Ethics in Stories with Alexander McCall Smith

Season two starts now! In this premiere episode of the second season of the Book Maven: A Literary Revue, Bethanne Patrick sits down with Alexander McCall Smith to discuss his philosophical female protagonists and writing multiple series at once.

Here's a fun fact: Bethanne watched the 1981 TV production of Brideshead Revisited on three different continents. In today's episode, she discusses the many adaptations of Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder.

Can Bethanne beat the clock? She gives us 6 Recs lovey for our To Be Read lists. Titles include My Beautiful Laundrette by Hanif Kureishi, Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell, Less by Andrew Sean Greer, Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls, The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, and Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters.

Find Bethanne on X, Substack, Instagram, and Threads.

The Book Maven: A Literary Revue is hosted by Bethanne Patrick, produced by Christina McBride, and engineered by Jordan Aaron, with help from Lauren Stack.

All titles mentioned: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series, 44 Scotland Street Series, Isabel Dalousie Series, The Perfect Passion Company Series by Alexander McCall Smith, The Obelisk Gate, Broken Earth Trilogy,and Great Cities Series by N. K. Jemisin, James by Percival Everett, American Fiction,Colored Television by Danzy Senna, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, B*****d Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison, Arcadia by Lauren Groff, Anywhere But Here by Mona Simpson, Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, My Beautiful Laundrette by Hanif Kureishi, Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell, Less by Andrew Sean Greer, Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls, The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, and Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters.

As always, all of the titles mentioned are up on our Bookshop account: https://bookshop.org/lists/the-book-maven-podcast-book-list-season-2 Use this link to support these authors!

Episode Transcript:

Bethanne: Welcome to season two of the Book Maven, a literary revue. This season, we'll talk to leading authors, dig into the classics to decide which should stay in the literary canon, and I'll recommend some of my favorite books to you. We'll have all that and more in this episode, but first, Alexander McCall Smith, author of the worldwide bestselling Number One Ladies Detective Club series, the 66 Scotland Street books, and the Isabel Dalhousie novels joined me to talk about his expertise, both as a writer, but also in ethics because you might not know this, but Alexander McCall Smith is a doctor of medical ethics and taught for many decades at the University of Edinburgh. Specifically, Smith talks about the important role ethics plays in the development of stories, as well as responsibilities writers have when publishing their stories.

Join us now in conversation as we talk about ethics, when they pertain to Smith's career, and if he applies them differently when he's writing fiction.

Bethanne: You are a more prolific writer than most I know, or many at least, and yet before you were a writer, you had another career as a legal expert on ethics, medical ethics to be precise. I often try to explain to young people that ethics is very impo