All of your favourite characters from 44 Scotland Street – Bertie, Irene, Cyril, Matthew and Big Lou included – made a welcome return to the Scotsman newspaper this week, with fresh instalments starting on Monday 24 January and a weekly update due to be posted on the Scotsman website (we’ll pass on the link when it’s available!)

Don’t miss out. Read it in the paper every day and catch up with previous volumes now available in paperback (and The Importance of Being Seven in hardback).

Looking for some Christmas cheer? Alexander has written four Christmas stories this year.

You can find one in the current Christmas issue of the Reader’s Digest, one in The Big Issue (split over their two festive issues), one featuring little Bertie in The Scotsman which will appear this Saturday, 18th December, and one to make you cry in the Wall Street Journal (Europe).

Don’t miss them!

This weekend, Alexander McCall Smith will be making two seasonally-themed appearances:

The Dundee Xmas Lecture

6.00 p.m. on Friday 3rd December at the Dalhousie Building, Old Hawkhill, University of Dundee.

Join Alexander McCall Smith for a warming winter’s evening of sheer entertainment as he chats to fellow novelist Jamie Jauncey.

Ticket price: free, but pre-booking required.

More info: buyat.dundee.ac.uk

A Thousand Years of Christmas

8.00 pm on Saturday 4th December at the University of St Andrews Music Centre

An eclectic mix of songs, carols, poems and readings, including material specially written by author Alexander McCall Smith.

Ticket price: £12/£9/£5. Admission free with ConcertCard.

More info: www.st-andrews.ac.uk

Please see the forthcoming events page of the site for more information.

A reader by the name of Mary very kindly left a comment on another post to let us know that Alexander’s interview with CBC’s Shelagh Rogers, which was recorded during the Woody Point Writers’ Festival earlier this year is now available to listen to on the CBC website.

Visit www.cbc.ca to listen to the full, 50-minute interview.

And a big thank you to Mary!

Alexander McCall Smith is to receive one of Botswana’s highest awards.

President Ian Khama has conferred the honour of Presidential Order of Meritorious Service (PMS) on one of the world’s favourite storytellers. The Scottish writer, who receives the award for services to Botswana, is famous throughout the world for his best-selling No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, which is set in Botswana. He will travel to the country to collect the award in person, early next year.

Alexander McCall Smith’s The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency was first published by Polygon in Edinburgh in 1998, and has since been translated into more than 45 languages around the world. The book grew from a stand-alone novel into a series which now contains 11 books and which enjoys sales of more than 20 million copies in the English language alone.

These engaging books, with their gentle humour and eccentric characters, have had a major impact on tourism in Botswana and been responsible for the world-wide success of Roibos, also known as Redbush tea, the sales of which have been transformed by Mma Ramotswe’s taste for the product.

In 2008, in what turned out to be his last film, Anthony Minghella adapted and produced the novels for television, filming in Botswana. The film, starring the American jazz singer and actress, Jill Scott, was financed by the Weinstein Company and the BBC with the support of the Republic of Botswana. The following year, BBC television and HBO made a drama series to follow-on from the world-wide success of the film and books.

President Khama is the President of Botswana and the Paramount Chief of the Bamangwato tribe. The 57 year-old president is the son of Seretse Khama, the country’s President from 1966 to 1980.

Other awardees include: Bill and Melinda Gates who, through their foundation, partnered with the Botswana government and the Merck Foundation, support Botswana’s response to HIV and AIDS; Merck Foundation chairman, Richard Clark; Bob and Sara Rothschild, who through their foundation are building two libraries per annum over a 10-year period.

Alexander commented: “I am delighted to have received this honour. I had not expected it and I am very touched by this gesture from the government of Botswana. I have the highest respect for the country and its people. If my books have helped to correct a negative image of Africa then I am very happy that this is the case.”

The audio serialisation of A Conspiracy of Friends – the third instalment in Alexander McCall Smith’s Corduroy Mansions series – begins today, over at www.telegraph.co.uk.

Featuring a host of favourite characters (William French, Freddie de la Hay, Oedipus Snark, Caroline Jarvis and many more) the audio episodes are once more read by Andrew Sachs and will run every Monday to Friday on the Telegraph website – with a print version on the website and in the newspaper as well – until 18th December.

Hachette Digital will then publish an abridged CD edition and unabridged download edition in May 2011, with a paperback to follow from Abacus in 2012.

The story begins with A Conspiracy of Friends Chapter 1: The Only Unpleasant Liberal Democrat…

You can also read an interview with Alexander McCall Smith conducted by The Telegraph‘s Gaby Wood.

Another new event to tell you about: Alexander will be calling in on Chepstow on Saturday October 9th, as a guest of the Chepstow Bookshop, en-route to his Cheltenham Literature Festival appearance later on the same day.

Details, as always, on the Forthcoming Events page of the website.

We’ve added details of a couple more public appearances to the Forthcoming Events page of the site:

October 7th 2010 – Alexander will be appearing in Stratford Upon Avon to discuss his brand new Isabel Dalhousie novel, The Charming Quirks of Others.

October 9th & 10th – Alexander will be a guest of the Cheltenham Literature Festival for two events (the second of which is already sold out, alas…)

As always, please check the the Forthcoming Events page for more details of these events (and more) and links to the relevant websites.

We’ve just added details of a number of public appearances to the Forthcoming Events page of the site.

Alexander will be appearing at the following events later in the year:

16th August : Vancouver Writers Festival

20th & 21st August : Woody Point (Newfoundland) Writers’ Festival

24th – 28th August : Edinburgh International Book Festival 2010

See the Forthcoming Events page for a quick summary of each appearance and links to the event organisers’ websites.

Alexander McCall Smith will take part in five events at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival, which runs from 14th-30th August.

Times, dates and ticket prices are yet to be confirmed – we’ll bring you the details as soon as we know them – but you can sign up to receive information as it’s announced at the EIBF website: www.edbookfest.co.uk.