Alexander McCall Smith 44 scotland street 6 Books Collection Pack Set RRP: £49.22 (Love Over Scotland, Espresso Tales, 44 Scotland Street, The Importance of Being Seven, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO BERTIE, The Unbearable Lightness of Scones)

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The city of Edinburgh vividly comes to life in this gently satirical and humorous serial novel featuring the adventures of Bertie, a child prodigy and remarkably over-psychoanalyzed five-year-old; Cyril the dog, with a penchant for ankles; and the stylish painter, Angus Lordie. I love this kind of ensemble piece. The chapters are short and change focus among the residents of the building at 44 Scotland Street. Not much happens, and everything happens: love found, lost and found again, awkward encounters, a hidden masterpiece, a secret tunnel, dinner with the boss (and boss’s wife and daughter), rebellion, great neighbors (and bad ones), a precocious child, a new job and therapy sessions. Through it all the reader is treated to the author’s witty observations on this microcosm of Edinburgh society. The relative peace and tranquillity of 44 Scotland Street is about to be disrupted. Irene is to return for a two-month stay, consigning Bertie to a summer camp. Not satisfied with that, she somehow manages to come between the enigmatic nun, Sister Maria-Fiore dei Fiori di Montagna, and her friend, the hagiographer, Antonia Collie. The characters were so lifelike and the dialogue between them felt genuine. The witty banter present in the writing was sharp and had this dry humour that had me bursting out in public. I appreciate a book that could genuinely make me laugh and this one accomplished that goal so effortlessly. It still had its interesting moments of human psychology as some of the character’s philosophies shown without being too direct e.g. Disturbing Parental ways, Failed dreams, self-discovery and so much more. A mystery about a certain painting is present but be weary the mystery doesn't drive the book but the individuals do. James has something else on his mind as well. James has been calling and texting his eccentric uncle, the Duke of Johannesburg, but the duke hasn't responded. So James and Matthew take steps to see what's up with the duke.

The story was fun and witty and creative, and I loved the twists and I appreciated that the “mystery” was not a huge part of the book/stories. On my second read of this book, I enjoyed it possibly more than the first time because I knew what to expect. This is not a novel of plot and event. It wanders from one character to the next, and lets you into their stream of consciousness in a way that might feel frustrating if you want Things to Happen. But I love this book for its close affinity with the city of Edinburgh, and the feeling it gives me of getting introduced (or, even better, re-introduced) to people who have lived in and breathed the air of the Scottish capital so that it's part of who they are. And the reader has the privilege of just going along for the ride in their everyday lives... walking with them over to their favorite coffee bar, hanging out with them during a slow period at work, having incidental conversations that stray hither and yon, and musing with them over many of life's imponderables. It's the closest substitute I can imagine for traveling to Edinburgh and actually making friends with everyday people. You wouldn't expect to solve a murder mystery or embark on a romance for the ages on a real-life normal trip, would you? But you might expect to meet someone interesting and chat with them about this and that, and maybe even meet their friends, right? And not all of them will be your cup of tea--a few of them could be annoying. But it's a whole social process of slowly expanding the network of people that have let you into their lives and thought processes. That's what this book does. No more, but no less. It's as loosely plotted as life itself, but that's why I find it in a class by itself. As always, characters reflect on, or expostulate on a variety of subjects, exposing the reader to small doses of gentle philosophy in the process. Childhood games, customer service, the comfort of continuity, envy, sonnets, Neanderthals, historical guilt, vanilla poetry, prayers and barking, bagpipes and belonging, oppression, justice and the blessing of benign government, the loss of the Gaelic language,and categories of rows in a shared flat: all these feature. And of course, McCall Smith can’t resist a dig at the Turner Prize. The action takes place entirely in a small area of Edinburgh, Scotland, but we never get enough of a description to have any real sense of the places or environment in which events are taking place. Several of the characters live in a rooming house, but we never get to see the house, the street, or much about the interiors of any of the rooms we visit. It’s much like watching a play on a bare stage which has characters dashing in, delivering a few lines, and dashing out again. We don’t get those lovely descriptions that Trollope, for example, gives us that bring characters to light and give us the sense that we would know them if we ran into them in the street; I could walk past any one of the characters in this book with no spark of recognition whatsoever. Nor do we get any real sense of what Scotland Street looks like, nor of the interior of the art gallery where two of the characters work, nor of any other venue in the book. For a book that takes place in a real place, one has to go to Google Street View to get any sense of the environment in which the characters move. The fifth book in the 44 Scotland Street series, The Unbearable Lightness of Scones, finds Bertie still troubled by his rather overbearing mother, Irene, but seeking his escape in the Cub Scouts. Matthew is rising to the challenge of married life with newfound strength and resolve, while Domenica epitomizes the loneliness of the long-distance intellectual. With his customary deftness, Alexander McCall Smith once again brings us an absorbing and entertaining tale of some of Scotland’s most quirky and beloved characters—all set in the beautiful, stoic city of Edinburgh.While Pat works at Matthew’s gallery, she points out that one of the paintings appears to be the work of Samuel Peploe. It is interesting that Matthew, the owner of the art gallery, has almost no knowledge of art. He is not much of a businessman, either, and his bills are paid by his father, who gave him the art gallery. Bruce, a strikingly handsome surveyor, is a narcissist who thinks all women should want to date him. We visit Matthew, his wife and their rambunctious triplets. Matthew now has part interest in Big Lou's Cafe and is encountering resistance in upgrading the menu. James, the young man who cares for the triplets part-time, is worried about his uncle, the Duke of Johannesburg. He fears he has been kidnapped. He and Matthew embark on a mission to save his uncle. This series is perfection in my opinion. I love everything about it. There little point in giving a plot synopsis because I’m not sure there is a plot, nothing in particular happens. The pacing is set by character development and conversations and the passage of time in these novels is arbitrary. It seems to occur at a different pace for some than others. Bertie for example has aged maybe one year in 14 books while others have married and now have toddlers. There is astute social observances and deep philosophical musings on a range of topics from the mundane to the deep. It’s quotidian in the best way. Bertie arrives at Irene's Aberdeen apartment, where his room is tiny, dark and cold. Bertie is also enrolled in an Aberdeen school, where he can't understand the Scots language used by his classmates. To top it off, Bertie is once again scheduled for psychoanalysis. Bertie confides his unhappy situation to his best friend in Edinburgh, Ranald Braveheart Macpherson, and the rest is (hilarious) history.

This is the 14th book in the "44 Scotland Street" series. It can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the series is a plus. So now we’re onto book 14 in a series that that has already won the hearts of readers throughout the world. In McCall Smith’s new novel, they’ll discover that seven-year-old Bertie finally gets to live in the Promised Land (Glasgow), just as his father’s budding romance is stymied by the narcissistic Bruce Anderson (not a real villain but the nearest we get to one here). But though we read on to find out what happens to the characters, the real charm of 44 Scotland Street lies in the sometimes surreal unpredictability of the other stories McCall Smith will add to the mix. The chapter headings hint at their range. ‘Rhododendrons and Missionaries’. ‘Bruchan Lom’. ‘Akratic Action’. ‘A Speluncean Entrance.’ I’ll explain one of them and you’ll see what I mean. Bertie’s trip to Glasgow with his father, Stuart, ends with Bertie winning money at cards off Lard O’Connor, a legendary Glasgow gangster. In the course of this adventure, Irene and Dr. Fairbairn, the psychotherapist, are engaged in a web of dark secrets and hidden agendas. His characters, the likable ones (which are neariy all of them), are wise people. I enjoy hearing their thoughts. They are kind and always know the right thing to do or say. I am often moved by what they do.What kind of story would we tell in our own putative Edinburgh serial novel? Again, I fear we’d get that wrong and, seduced by tartan noir, contemplate a thriller or a crime novel, failing to realise that the serial novel can’t really handle anything with a particularly complicated or convoluted plot. McCall Smith, whose own tastes run to the shrewd, slow-building comedies of Barbara Pym, intuitively realised that something similar could easily be adopted to serial fiction. Just as Armistead Maupin centred his tales on 28 Barbary Lane, on San Francisco’s Russian Hill, so he himself could base an enjoyable Edinburgh comedy of manners around a New Town stairwell, and that if the characters were sufficiently interesting or different, we would happily follow their interactions in subsequent volumes. There are very short chapters, and at first I could tell this was written in serial form and I didn’t like it that much, but I got used to it, and even started appreciating the jumping around between characters. The novel unfolds the story of Pat, a likeable but mere twenty-year-old whose life choices are sometimes concerning to her parents. She takes her second-year gap from school to work in an art gallery run by Matthew.

As for Bruce, I am left wondering how long this new persona will last. Not to be too much of a pessimist, and I do believe people can change, but … really?? This seven year old has our heart. So easily pleased, so easily hurt. Wanting only peace and a little understanding in his world. Wanting mostly to be seen, and to just be a NORMAL little boy.Ramsey Dunbarton, retired lawyer whose main claim to fame is his erstwhile performance as the Duke of Plaza-Toro in The Gondoliers In an attempt to revive the male camaraderie of his youth, Bruce gets involved with an old friend's shady real estate venture, which is aimed at bilking a buyer out of tens of thousands of pounds. Bruce seems unconcerned about the immorality of the scheme until an electrifying experience changes his outlook on life.

Sister Maria-Fiore dei Fiori di Montagna continues to offer aphorisms, some more enigmatic than others: “Two snails do not argue about whose shell is the more attractive.” Angus compares conceptual art to the emperor’s new clothes, there is a marriage proposal, Highland Games are organised for the Drummond Street Gardens and, as always, Angus bestows a poem on the gathered company. Domenica Macdonald mentally lauds the virtue of inaction: not fixing what isn’t broken; the electrically-changed Bruce Anderson stuns his friends by heading to Pluscarden, intent on becoming a monk; Turner Prize judge, Sister Maria-Fiore dei Fiori di Montagna reveals a radical plan likely to upset its protagonists. Scotland Street is an episodic novel by Alexander McCall Smith, the author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. The story was first published as a serial in The Scotsman, starting 26 January 2004, every weekday, for six months. The book retains the 100+ short chapters of the original. It was partially influenced by Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, a famous serial story. It is the first book in a series of the same name. The series now has 15 books, as of 2021.Sono un'ammiratrice della Signora Ramotswe, quindi ho voluto provare questa serie dello stesso McCall Smith, ambientata a Edimburgo. Premetto che McCall Smith conosce bene il Botswana e la Scozia, perchè è nato e vissuto Zimbabwe e ha trascorso molto tempo in Botswana e Scozia. The gallery is broken into and Matthew decides to ask Pat to keep the painting at her flat until they are sure it is a genuine Peploe. Matthew is clearly attracted to Pat and would like to date her, but Pat does not reciprocate his feelings and does not want to get involved with her boss. When Pat accepts her narcissistic ex-boyfriend Bruce’s invitation for coffee, she has no idea of the complications in her romantic and professional life that will follow. Meanwhile, Matthew, her boss at the art gallery, attracts the attention of the police after a misunderstanding at the local bookstore. Featuring all the quirky characters we have come to know and love, The Unbearable Lightness of Scones, finds Bertie, the precocious six-year-old, still troubled by his rather overbearing mother, Irene, but seeking his escape in the Cub Scouts. Matthew is rising to the challenge of married life with newfound strength and resolve, while Domenica epitomizes the loneliness of the long-distance intellectual. Cyril, the gold-toothed star of the whole show, succumbs to the kind of romantic temptation that no dog can resist and creates a small problem, or rather six of them, for his friend and owner Angus Lordie.