Alexander McCall Smith

Marvelously portrayed on film by Maggie Smith.

So beautifully portrayed that, in my view, nobody can ever act Jean Brodie again after that performance.

Well, Auden is my great enthusiasm, I suppose my greatest literary enthusiasm, and I remember my discovery of Auden.

It's very clearly in my memory.

It was in Belfast and I was in the university library and I happened to be walking along

and I saw this blue-covered volume, collected short of poems, of W.H.

Auden.

I had read, I think, one Auden poem before that, and it hadn't made a particular impression on me, because I really hadn't looked into his work.

But I recognised the name, and yes, I thought I had read a poem by Auden.

In fact, I think the one that I'd read was Goodbye to Mezzo Giorno, which was a lovely poem.

Anyway, I picked up this book, I took it off, and I borrowed it from the library.

And that was my discovery.

I remember sitting there opening it and being drawn into this body of work and thinking, my goodness, this man is speaking to me.

And that, of course, is a sign of a poet being very good indeed.

If the reader thinks the poet's addressing him or her.

Yes, I often travel with the collection of shorter poems in my suitcase.

And, of course, now I have an electronic version so I can look at any of the poems of Auden if needs be.

there are certain poems that I go back to.

Auden's range was very, very broad, as you know.

He wrote about all sorts of things, and he also used every matrical form known to the English language, so he's a very, very versatile poet.