Worldwide bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith, the man behind The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, is coming to Bridport on Thursday 23 October.

He’ll be at Bridport Electric Palace and talking to local writer Nikki May, who won the Comedy Women in Print Prize new voice award for her first novel, Wahala.

The special event, at 7pm, precedes BridLit week, which takes place from 2 to 8 November in venues all around the town.

McCall Smith was knighted last year for services to literature, academia and charity.

The series, set in Botswana and featuring the detective Mma Ramotswe, has now sold more than 20 million copies in the English language alone.

After the investiture ceremony at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, he said Mma Ramotswe would be ‘very pleased’ because she liked jewellery and decorations.

McCall Smith has written and contributed to more than 100 books, including short story collections, children’s books, and specialist academic titles.

An emeritus professor of medical law at the University of Edinburgh, he is also known for series including the 44 Scotland Street novels, the Isabel Dalhousie collection, and the von Igelfeld books.

At the Electric Palace, he will be entertaining the audience with tales from the latest 44 Scotland Street novel, Bertie’s Theory of Ice Cream, and discuss In the Time of Five Pumpkins, the new novel in the detective agency series.

His interlocutor, Nikki May, is no stranger to BridLit, having been a speaker in 2022 about her debut novel, a darkly comic and subversive take on love, race and family.

Nikki’s latest novel, This Motherless Land, has been lauded by the critics, with Good Housekeeping describing it as ‘a clever, fresh retelling of Mansfield Park, focusing on identity and family.’  The i newspaper calls it ‘a gorgeous, sweeping novel’.

Tickets for the event on Thursday 23 October are available online and from Bridport Tourist Information Centre.

For more information about all Bridport Literary Festival events, visit the website: bridlit.com