Alexander McCall Smith has written more than 60 books, including specialist academic titles, short story collections, and a number of immensely popular children's books. But he is best known for his internationally acclaimed No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, which rapidly rose to the top of bestseller lists throughout the world. The fifth novel in the series, The Full Cupboard of Life, received the Saga Award for Wit in the UK. The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (2007) is the eighth book in the series. The series has now been translated into 39 languages and has sold over 14 million copies worldwide. Another series, beginning with The Sunday Philosophy Club, about a female sleuth named Isabel Dalhousie, appeared in 2004 and immediately leapt onto national bestseller lists. McCall Smith's serial novel, 44 Scotland Street, was published in book form to great acclaim in 2005, followed by Espresso Tales and Love Over Scotland. In addition, McCall Smith's German professor series, Portuguese Irregular Verbs, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs, and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances were published in the US in January 2005. His children's titles include the Akimbo series, about a boy in Africa, and the Harriet Bean books. McCall Smith’s latest book is The Lost Art of Gratitude, the sixth in the Isabel Dalhousie series.