Product Description

With his characteristic warmth, inventiveness and brilliant wit, Alexander McCall Smith gives us more of the gloriously entertaining comings and goings at 44 Scotland Street, the Edinburgh townhouse. Six-year-old prodigy Bertie perseveres in his heroic struggle for truth and balanced good sense against his insufferable mother and her crony, the psychotherapist Dr Fairbairn, going as far as to make a short-lived bid for freedom on a trip to Paris with the Edinburgh youth orchestra. Domenica sets off on an anthropological odyssey with pirates in the Malacca Straits, while Pat attracts several handsome admirers, including a toothsome suitor named Wolf. And Big Lou, eternal source of coffee and good advice to her friends, has love, heartbreak and erstwhile boyfriend Eddie's misdemeanours on her own mind.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4918 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review
** 'It is McCall Smith's particular genius to be able to look on the brighter side of life, and he's seldom done so more enjoyably' THE SCOTSMAN

About the Author
Following a distinguished career as a Professor of Medical Law, Alexander McCall Smith has turned to writing full-time. He is the author of over sixty books on a wide array of subjects, and his books have been translated into thirty-seven languages. He lives in Edinburgh with his wife.

Customer Reviews

Lovely!
I have read a handful of the author's books now, and I find that the more I read, the more I want to read. This is yet another cosy and interesting book by McCall Smith that is testimony to his acute power of observation and wonderful ability to tell a good story.

I loved this book !!
If you are a regular Alexander McCall smith fan then suffice it to say that this latest offering is definitely up to scratch.Personally i think it is currently the best in the Scotland Street series of novels and he has certainly put more thought and plot development into this one.
For those of you not familiar with Mr McCall Smith's work then i will say that he is not to everyone's taste.He has a very sweet natured,kind hearted but also very laid back way of looking at life.His novels don't have plot developments at the turn of every page;he takes time to flesh out the characters and brings to the surface their little eccentricities which lets face it we all have and whilst doing so creates a rich tapestry of life which is often funny,amusing,sad and moving but always with that philosophical overview which makes the author who he is.
This book sees the same characters that we have got to know and like but he seems to have them all travelling away from Scotland street and getting ito some quite amusing capers (Bertie's adventures are a real gem !)which is a most wellcome treat.
All in all this is McCall Smith at his very best.This is definitely for his regular readers but those new to the Scotland Street series may like to check out the previous two books in the series before reading this one so that you have a better idea of what the characters are about.
A real laid back treat of a novel - ideal for lazy summer days !

Another brilliant book of Edinburgh character observations from McCall Smith
Another brilliant book in the 44 Scotland Street Series.

Bertie's back with more ingenious ways to divest himself of his suffocating mother, Irene, and trying to avoid playing Captain Von Trapp in the "Sound of Music" (in lederhosen - Irene's design of course). Irene on the other hand is as neurotic and as committed to the "Bertie Plan" and to Dr Fairbairn's theories of pre-adolescent psychology as she has ever been. The good Doctor, on the hand, is still a bit guilty about his last encounter with Wee Fraser.

Pat once again falls in love with an unsuitable lupine character and Matthew invests in a hideous pair of crushed strawberry corduroy trousers (not crushed strawberry dungarees - that's more Bertie's (or rather, Irene's style)) and a "distressed oatmeal" jumper. Cyril's fondness for human ankles and the smell of sun-dried tomatoes continues along with Angus Lordie's devotion to him. Angus himself is missing Domenica who is pirate-hunting in the Antiopdes but has lent her flat to her friend, Antonia, a mid-6th century Scottish saint fancier and novelist. Big Lou and Lard O'Connor shake hands over a business deal and Stuart comes out of his shell a little bit (at least when Irene's not around). The only downside is that ever-preening Bruce is missing from the story.