Last year black writer Betty Knight said that his detective series was 'teeming with black race tropes and colonial myths about Africa' and said he used a 'troubling appropriation of black voices'.
Author and academic Professor Sir Alexander McCall Smith, from Edinburgh, is made a Knight Bachelor by King Charles III last July.
Scottish Author Alexander McCall Smith poses with his medal after being appointed a Knight following an investiture ceremony at the Palace Of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.
The author, who lives in Edinburgh with his wife Elizabeth Parry, is best known for his No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, which has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide.
'He said they'd be turned down today: a middle-aged, white Scot [Alexander McCall Smith] writing about a black woman in Botswana - that's not on.'.
