Alexander McCall Smith: ‘Friendship lies at the heart of almost all my books’

The many layers of friendship: 45%

If people ask me what my books are about, I tend to answer that friendship lies at the heart of almost all of them. I find the whole topic fascinating – how we make friends, what we get from our friendships. My interest has led me to psychological and sociological literature on the topic, particularly to the work of Robin Dunbar, who has made an extensive study of the role of friends in our everyday life. He came up with the Dunbar Number – which is the maximum number of friends we can have in our lives (150). I have also been reading about how friendship among men has been changing. Many men have missed the friendships we used to create at work and elsewhere, such as in the pub. Now many people work at home or no longer go to the pub, which has led to a crisis in male friendships. But then along came the idea of the bromance (the non-sexual close male friendship), which has apparently injected new life into the notion of close male friendships. One recent study of male undegraduates at an English university revealed that a substantial majority of those interviewed had a bromance on the go. Friendship, of course, has an international dimension. More than ever, politicians need to stress today that we can, and should, be friends with those with whom we share this earth.

Poetry: 10%

Poetry is a great consolation, especially in troubled times. I read poetry every day, particularly the work of my literary hero, WH Auden. Auden’s voice was a marvellously humane one, and he wrote on every subject under the sun. He did Freudian theory every bit as well as he did limestone landscapes. I have a group of friends that meets online every month to discuss five or six poems. These meetings are a high point of our lives. Poetry distils experience: it reminds us of the existence of the soul.

The dying art of conversation: 15%

Remember when we used to talk to one another on trains or on planes? I so enjoy those conversations, struck up with complete strangers. I once spent an entire flight between Edinburgh and Newark, New Jersey, in conversation with the man next to me – it was a two-sided one, I hasten to point out – and we talked about everything. Now we isolate ourselves in electronic cocoons and do not talk at all – but I think we should. The conversations of others are often very interesting, except when they are talking on their mobile phones, when you hear only one side. I think we should have the opposite of the quiet coach on trains: a coach in which you are required to plug your mobile phone into the PA system so that your fellow travellers can hear both sides of the conversation.

Working with other people: 10%

Being a novelist is a rather lonely occupation – it’s just you and the page. I have enjoyed writing for composers, as that gives me the chance to work with somebody else. I have written a number of chamber operas and song cycles, and I continue to work with composers on new material.

Botswana: 10%

The country is the setting of my No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novels. It is a country I love and admire. My wife and I go there every year, and when I return I start planning the next trip. It is a good place. I often think of Botswana and its courteous and engaging people. I close my eyes and I am there, and I smell the wind from the Kalahari.

Fleeing the city: 10%

I also like to escape the city regularly to spend time in Argyll, where the concerns of our trying times seem very far away. I try to stop worrying about the calamities unfolding in the world, and listen instead to the sound of the burn tumbling off the mountain. From my window I look down a sea loch to the hills of Ardnamurchan that are an attenuated blue in the distance. “The rose of all the world is not for me,” wrote Hugh MacDiarmid. He wanted, instead, the little white rose of Scotland that smelled sharp and sweet and broke the heart. That is what Scotland is like, and it is much on my mind.

Alexander McCall Smith is speaking at JLF in London at the British Library, 5-7 June. His latest books are The Kind Company of Others (£12.99, Polygon) and The Subtle Pleasures of Indiscretion (£20, Abacus)

Illustration by Alma Haser