Alexander Smith

Thursday

Alexander Smith

Alexander McCall Smith’s notebook: America vs my diet

The trouble with going on an American book tour is that I know it’s going to play havoc with my diet. People on diets can very quickly become diet bores, but I am unrepentant: I know the calorie content of most things and, for instance, how long it takes to burn off a croissant. Not that I eat croissants any more, of course. (We dieters can be tremendously smug.) America is a challenge, though, because all their food is injected with corn syrup. In Denver I was once served an omelette that had been dusted, in cold sobriety, with icing sugar. But it’s not just icing sugar that is a problem: the intrusive strawberry is a difficult issue too. Any breakfast, it seems, must include a strawberry or two, placed alongside the eggs.

Sunday

Alexander Smith

David Cameron should take aim at the Turner Prize

David Cameron seems to be prepared to speak out on certain subjects that many other politicians avoid. This is very welcome. I think it’s about time he took a dig at the Turner Prize. I am unconvinced by the banal installations and grainy videos that consistently win that particular prize. The Prime Minister needs to take the lead and say that the emperor has no clothes. He has also failed to address the question of whether men should use facial moisturiser (many women think they should) — or should that be left to one of his colleagues? It would carry more weight if it came from the Prime Minister, but he has a lot on his plate and might not get round to it. Boris could, though. This is an extract from Alexander McCall Smith's diary in this week's magazine.

Thursday

Alexander Smith

Alexander McCall Smith’s diary: Meeting Babar’s creator

As any author will tell you, literary festivals differ widely. If you are invited to Willy Dalrymple’s Jaipur Festival, with its renowned final party, you say yes within minutes of receiving the invitation. Other invitations you might take a little longer to accept. The Key West Literary Seminar, which took place a couple of weeks ago, is one of the glamorous ones. I was ready for Florida, as Scotland had been visited by gale after gale and accompanying driving rain. As luck would have it, we arrived in Key West at exactly the same time as the polar vortex that had frozen the entire United States, including a normally balmy Florida. No matter: Key West was, for the duration, one huge literary celebration. I was invited to lunch at a house in the old part of the town.

Saturday

Alexander Smith

Never a dull moment

In May this year Scotland had an election for its parliament. I was in London a couple of months earlier and was surprised by the blank stares with which some of my English friends greeted my remark that we were facing a very interesting political situation north of the Border. Some people, it seemed, did not even know that there was a parliament in Scotland, let alone one about to be the subject of an election. Then the Scottish National party won — in a sort of way — and, as we say in Scotland, perhaps people ken noo. English lack of interest in Scottish affairs is quite understandable. It is difficult and depressing enough to keep abreast of one’s own current affairs without following the unfolding history and politics of others.