WHAT BOOK would writer Alexander McCall Smith take to a desert island?

WHAT BOOK. . . are you reading now?

I usually have more than one book on the go and a large pile awaiting my attention. Over the last few years, I have been re-reading the novels of Muriel Spark. 

The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie has always been a favourite, but more recently I have re-engaged with The Mandelbaum Gate, a tale of espionage and pilgrimage.

Her longest novel, it is quite different from the short, sharp writings that went before, or the richness of her longer works that followed. 

There is more than a hint of autobiography, a writing to explore self perhaps. And that voice . . . it lingers in the mind well after the final page, inviting you back for further discussion, asking you to revisit and find something new.

I’m also reading Picts: Scourge Of Rome, Rulers Of The North by Gordon Noble and Nicholas Evans. This impressive book covers seven centuries of Pictish history.

And I’ve just finished Abyss, by Max Hastings, who writes beautifully. This fascinating treatment of the Cuban Missile Crisis is an absolute page-turner.

Writer Alexander says he usually has more than one book on the go and a large pile awaiting his attention

. . . would you take to a desert island?

W.H. Auden’s Shorter Collected Poems. His belief in civic virtues, his espousal of understanding and sympathy in human relationships, his insistence on the healing power of art: all of these are as important in our own 21st century crisis as they were in the difficult years of the 1930s. 

His rational voice is as clear, as moving and as relevant as it was when read for the first time — and I would welcome his company.

. . . first gave you the reading bug?

Ginger’s Adventures (a Ladybird book by A.J. MacGregor). This was an early favourite, a companion at bedtime. 

It is a story told in rhyme — and I knew it so well I could recite it. In fact, I still can!

But it was the sense of adventure that captured my young imagination. I don’t suppose a book like this would find a publisher these days.

. . . left you cold?

There was a time when I persevered with books, even if they left me cold. Now, I have less guilt in quietly moving them onto the charity pile.

 Over the years I have read The Iliad, attributed to Homer, on a number of occasions. The text of this epic poem is heavy with military history and the voice seems to belong to more than one author — who actually wrote it is surely one of the greatest literary mysteries.

There are question marks, too, over when this work was written — perhaps as early as 2000 BC, well before the time Homer is said to have existed. Of these two books, I much prefer The Odyssey, which is quite different in style.

Does The Iliad leave me cold? No — but lukewarm and a little frustrated. However, one cannot deny that, taken together, these two epics give rich insight into early society and that they have influenced all art forms and continue to do so.

• The Discreet Charm Of The Big Bad Wolf and I Think Of You by Alexander McCall Smith are both available now.