Alexander McCall Smith and James Naughtie

Alexander McCall Smith CBE was born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1948. As a professor of medical law he worked in many universities in the UK and abroad, and served as Vice-Chairman of the Human Genetics Commission of the UK; a member of the International Bioethics Commission of UNESCO; Chairman of the Ethics Committee of the British Medical Journal and Chairman of the Ethics Committee of the Roslin Institute. He lives in Edinburgh and is married with two daughters.

James Naughtie, special correspondent for BBC News, is one of the country's best-known broadcasters, having presented Today on Radio 4 for 21 years. He has hosted every edition of Bookclub on that network since it began in 1998 and written and presented many documentaries on books and music on radio and television. Last year he published an account of fifty years of travels in the United States - On the Road - and later this year he will publish the third in a series of espionage novels.