The Stories Alexander McCall Smith Reads to His Grandchildren

Reading an Alexander McCall Smith book is like meeting a good friend for tea: welcoming, insightful, engaging, and likely to be filled with plenty of witticisms and great stories. With two new books coming out in as many months — The Bertie Project and My Italian Bulldozer — fans will be happy to hear McCall Smith is keeping the pace as quick as ever. Curious what tales this master storyteller enjoys in his downtime, we asked him to share a shortlist of family favorites. Here are the books Alexander McCall Smith enjoys reading with his grandchildren.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake

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“A wonderful story in which the unpleasant children get their just deserts and Charlie inherits the chocolate factory.”

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Danny the Champion of the World

by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake

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“A warm-hearted story of a boy and his father.”

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Now We Are Six

by A. A. Milne, illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard

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“The creator of Winnie-the-Pooh wrote wonderful verse for children. I loved these when I was a boy.”

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Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories

by Rudyard Kipling

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McCall Smith loves these twelve magical tales in which Kipling provides inventive, imaginative answers to questions such as how the camel got his hump, how the leopard got his spots, and how the alphabet was made.

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The Wind in the Willows

by Kenneth Grahame

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“The world of Ratty, Mole, and Mr. Toad is a timeless story of the English countryside.”

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Watership Down

by Richard Adams

“For when they are a bit bigger. How rabbits really live. A great epic.”

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Babar

by Jean de Brunhoff and Laurent de Brunhoff

“And of course the Babar books by Jean and Laurent de Brunhoff. The story of Babar is one of the great children’s classics. I shall leave out the scene where Babar’s mother is shot by a cruel hunter — the rest will remain.”

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Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, the 44 Scotland Street series, and the Corduroy Mansions series.