ALEXANDER McCall Smith, the author of the No1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels, has admitted he finds Scottish crime novels "strange" and said they show Scotland in a grim light.
The author – who has sold more than 20 million books in 46 different languages – said he was disappointed in the way some writers choose to portray Scotland as a "place of violence".
Discussing the genre of crime fiction dubbed Tartan Noir, McCall Smith said they were guilty of portraying a narrow view of Scotland.
He said: "Sometimes we present ourselves in a less than complimentary light, which is a pity. The portrayal of Scotland as a place of violence disappoints me.
"There is urban dysfunction and violence in Scotland, and aggression, but that's not the whole picture."
Scottish crime fiction has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years with authors such as Ian Rankin, Denise Mina and Louise Welsh, enjoying considerable time on the bestseller lists.
McCall Smith, a friend of Ian Rankin's who once gave his fellow Edinburgh author a cameo appearance in one of his Scotland Street novels, has won a huge audience with the offbeat humour of his novels.
He hit out at those who had labelled him "unduly optimistic" for not taking a negative approach when writing, saying that authors did not have to take a downbeat view in their work.
He said: "I get accused of being unduly optimistic and concentrating only on positive things, which I find a very strange accusation, because it is as if the role of the writer is to represent dysfunction and discord.
"Certainly that must be represented, but that is not the sole thing, this assumption that you have got to be grim to be a writer seems to me to be very strange.
"They feel this proper community and they may feel they are lacking it in their real lives.
"It is slightly artificial, [but] it appeals to some people. Scotland Street, for example, is widely read in India and they like [the fact] that it has got a strong sense of the local and local rootedness; people yearn for it in their lives."
The phrase Tartan Noir was first used by American writer James Ellroy when describing Rankin's Rebus series of books.
Although McCall Smith's Detective Agency novels appear in book shops' crime fiction section, he is renowned for the lightness of his stories and focus on his characters' eccentricities.
As well as the Detective Agency and Scotland Street novels, McCall Smith has scored a hit with his series The Sunday Philosophy Club, starring the Edinburgh philosopher and amateur sleuth Isabel Dalhousie.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article