The first book in this series, and the one after which the series is named, was first published in 1998. The second, Tears of the Giraffe, followed in 2000. By 2006 there were seven; since then, books have appeared at the rate of exactly one per year. In June 2024, Wikipedia listed 24 books – the latest of which was From a Far and Lovely Country, published in 2023.
Alexander McCall Smith was knighted in the 2024 New Year Honours list – by which time sales of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books amounted to over 20 million copies in 46 languages. But these are only a fraction of his prolific output; Wikipedia lists over 50 other adult novels, a similar number of children's novels, and nine short story collections, (not to mention sundry non–fiction books). He is said to write up to five thousand words a day when at home (at the rate of about one thousand per hour), but only two or three thousand when travelling.
© Haydn Thompson 2024