Welcome to the extraordinary world of Professor Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, an unnaturally tall and memorable character whose sublime insouciance is a blend of the cultivated pomposity of Frasier Crane and Inspector Clouseau’s hapless gaucherie. The complete exploits of this unlikely adventurer are delightfully captured in The 21⁄2 Pillars of Wisdom.

 Back to top | e-mail or print this page

“For a generation fed a narrow and cynical diet of celebrity, narcissism, miserabilism and sensationalism, McCall Smith offers a philosophical feast. In a sated world, he has identified a new kind of hunger.”
–The Scotsman

“Although McCall Smith’s narrative gifts and splendid voice are on fine display in almost all of his published fiction, they might be best suited to the entertainingly ridiculous tales contained in these three volumes. These are books meant to be read and reread, and appreciators of humour à la P. G. Wodehouse are advised to make the adventures of Prof. von Igelfeld a permanent part of their literary collection.”
–The Globe and Mail

“These collections of interconnected stories are gentle farces, somewhat similar in tone to E. F. Benson’s Lucia books (which happen to be great favourites of McCall Smith). The world of the institute, like Lucia’s English village of Riseholme, is a small and privileged one, and, as in those books, it is a place where much is made of nothing – to great comic effect. The humour is heightened, of course, by the lofty formality with which the professors address one another, even as they’re thinking the basest thoughts.”
–The New York Times Book Review

“McCall Smith happily pushes every scene to its Monty Python-esque limit.”
–The Georgia Straight

“Alexander McCall Smith possesses a seemingly limitless imagination.... McCall Smith finds plenty
to poke fun at in the halls of academe, a setting fraught with ego-driven battles for power and prestige.”
–Chicago Sun-Times

 Back to top | e-mail or print this page

Click here for a checklist of Alexander McCall Smith's books

 Back to top | e-mail or print this page

Portuguese Irregular Verbs

The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs

At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances

 Back to top | e-mail or print this page

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the international phenomenon The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series and of The Sunday Philosophy Club series. He was born in what is now known as Zimbabwe and was a law professor at the University of Botswana and at Edinburgh University. He lives in Scotland. In his spare time he is a bassoonist in the RTO (Really Terrible Orchestra).

 Back to top | e-mail or print this page