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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Also included is an edition of Radio 4's Bookclub, in which Alexander McCall Smith talks about his novel 44 Scotland Street with James Naughtie and readers. Though ubiquitous in the nineteenth century, these days the serial novel is a rarity. One of the few recent examples is American writer Armistead Maupin’s Tales from the City series. When Sandy met him in California in 2003, he made that very point. Why weren’t more writers following his example, he asked him. When Sandy mentioned this in an article in the Herald, I wondered the same thing. Would he himself be interested in writing a series novel? I asked. Yes, he replied. The small fact this book was originally serialised and a chapter was realised each week in an Edinburgh newspaper. On the upside, Bertie has been happily free from psychoanalysis, saxophone lessons, yoga classes, Italian lessons, etc. since his mother Irene moved to Aberdeen to get a Ph.D. Five-year-old Bertie is a Grade 6 on the saxophone and speaks fluent Italian as a result of his pushy mother, Irene. Bertie gets into trouble and is expelled from East New Town Nursery. His mother forces him into psychotherapy, and his dreams of being a normal five-year-old continue to be thwarted.

Some of the storylines in this particular instalment were a little jarring. Still, at least there was no Nudist association or Duke of Johannesburg storyline. The premise of the book follows Pat a young naïve 20something-year-old girl who moved out of her parent’s house because “Independence” and on her search for a place to stay she comes across space at 44 Scotland Street. Her life takes an interesting turn when she meet Love in the Time of Bertie is the fifteenth book in the popular 44 Scotland Street series by Scottish author, Alexander McCall Smith, and in it, the lives of the residents of 44 Scotland Street and those of their friends are, once again, updated for the continuing enjoyment of series fans. The audio version is narrated by David Rintoul. There is some humor, but it’s a muted humor. It’s not the wit of Austen, nor the hilarity of Wodehouse, nor the wry English humor of John Mortimer. It’s humor strained through a screen of cheesecloth. Of the many delightful series and standalone novels by Alexander McCall Smith, the 44 Scotland Street(Edinburgh) books are my favourite. I always look forward to each new addition, and it is like revisiting old friends. The books have warmth and humour while containing a gentle philosophy and thought-provoking conversations to ponder.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. Big Lou (I crave bacon rolls!) and Fat Bob's new relationship is delightfully open and honest. Young Bertie's friends are up to their usual antics (and tell poor Bertie how dreadfully cold Aberdeen is, way up "north with its polar bears). Stuart, his father, adores his son and is worried about allowing Bertie to live with his out-of-town (and out-of-life) mother for three months. Bertie's grandparents have their own views. There are vignettes of other characters, too. But there are mysteries that need solving too. Could Angus Lordie’s dog, Cyril–the only dog in Scotland with a gold tooth–have unearthed a Neanderthal skull? Does the long-suffering Stuart have any hope of kindling a new relationship when Bruce, ever the navel gazer and consummate seducer, effortlessly steps into hispas de deux? And how will the patrons of Big Lou’s cafe react to the menu’s imminent culinary transformation?

Personally, I think maybe one of his retired academic legal cronies one day stared him in the eye over a few pints of dark brown Guinness, an’ muttered, “Aye, Sandy me lad, yer rich an’ famous - so why not now GET WI’ THE TIMES? 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. 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. Affable Big Lou has taken a shine to a strongman called Fat Bob, who stopped into Big Lou's Coffee Shop one morning. When Fat Bob includes Big Lou's adopted son Finlay in a dinner date, it clinches the attraction. Inspired by Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, 44 Scotland Street started life as a serial in The Scotsman. It was a huge hit, and was soon novelised, adapted on stage and dramatised for BBC Radio 4. Collected here are all five radio series, in which we follow the interconnected lives of the residents of adjoining flats in a tenement in Edinburgh's Georgian New Town.

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AMS is a soul author for me. He is someone I trust. I feel I know him. I am safe with him. It doesn't matter what is going on, I know he won't let me down. I could say this about any book he writes, sight unseen.

On the bright side, Sister Maria-Flore dei Fiori de Montagna - the aphorism spouting, social climbing nun - has been appointed to the panel of judges of the Turner Prize. Sister Maria-Fiore, who's a conventional thinker, will never give the prize to an outré modern artist. 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. 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.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. Perhaps Bertie, the precocious five-year-old, will have the normal boyhood life envisioned by his father, Stuart. Bertie wants to attend Watson school, where he would get a chance to play rugby. He yearns for a life of fishing and rugby instead of yoga and Italian lessons orchestrated by his pushy mother. Domenica is an independent anthropologist who's interested in people, especially the new renters moving into the ground floor of 44 Scotland Street. This is the 15th book in the "44 Scotland Street" series. It can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the series is a plus. It was the beauty of the country before them that had done it. Scotland was a place of attenuated light, of fragility, of a beauty that broke the heart.”

It’s the most anticipated event of the decade—Big Lou and Fat Bob’s wedding—and everyone is invited! But the relative peace and tranquillity of 44 Scotland Street is about to be disrupted. Domineering Irene is set to return for a two-month stay, consigning young Bertie to a summer camp. Not content 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. One should be aware of what lays ahead when getting to the books of the likes of Alexander McCall Smith. This guy is so prolific, that one might wonder when is he doing everything that he does.Their chance day-to-day criss-crossings, quirky foibles and comic adventures are all observed by Number 44's longest-term resident, anthropologist Domenica MacDonald, her painter friend Angus Lordie - and Angus' dog, Cyril, the only canine in Scotland with a gold tooth.