THIS year’s Edinburgh Award will be presented to author and academic Alexander McCall Smith.
The emeritus professor of medical law at the University of Edinburgh will receive the honour in recognition of legal career and writing success.
McCall Smith has become a hugely successful novelist through his The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, The Sunday Philosophy Club, and 44 Scotland Street book series.
He will become the 14th person to receive the award, following in the footsteps of last year’s recipient Ann Budge and fellow writers Ian Rankin (2007) and JK Rowling (2008), as well as fellow academics Professor Peter Higgs (2011) and Sir Timothy O’Shea (2017).
McCall Smith said: “I am immensely honoured by this award – the people who really deserve it, though, are those who have helped me in my work: the publishers, editors, and bookshop staff who help get the printed word out about this wonderful city.”
Frank Ross, Edinburgh’s lord provost, added: “Through his wonderfully charming and engaging writing Alexander McCall Smith has done much to promote Edinburgh across the world.
“It therefore gives me great pleasure to announce him as the recipient of the 2020 Edinburgh Award.”
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