Stuart caves.

Comfort food for the soul.

I do enjoy this series, I’ve said it before but it is like catching up with friends. Surprisingly I felt sorry for Bruce, although after his experience with his Aussie girlfriend, I wonder if he will change his ways. I still don’t really get the nudist society but thankfully they didn’t appear much. I love Nicolas hope for her son to break free, a as a result hopefully get a better life for Bertie, although I do understand why the story went the way it did. I Lenten learnt a new word - defenestration !! Not sure when I will ever use it though. Can’t wait to get onto the next in the series.

I love Bertie and I love the setting. In this volume McCall Smith describes Edinburgh in such detail, it was a vicarious revisit for me. It's a city I really love except in July and August when it is overwhelmed with tourists. Nonetheless, it is a city chock full of history and interesting people.
McCall Smith ends every Bertie book with the reader questioning "what's next"? I can only say his mother Irene continues to be extremely unlikeable and even her family is questioning what life would be like without her. Stuart finally figures out she is kind of a Stalinist in her pronouncements about everything and everybody. There is a young woman studying for a PhD in 20th century Scottish poetry. Being a lover of poetry I vowed to read a lot more Scottish poetry. For me, this was the best Bertie yet! I needed something light, and this delivered.

‘Some things are really important.’

Poor Bertie. The awful Irene is back from the Middle East, Olive still thinks she’s engaged to him and no longer can he watch cartoons with his grandmother, Nicola. Irene is not happy with Stuart (how dare he undermine her parenting!) and Ulysses still vomits whenever Irene picks him up.

There’s never a dull moment at 44 Scotland Street. Bruce has fallen in love with an Australian, Big Lou wants to adopt Finlay and Angus ends up defenestrated! But there’s a lot more to the story than this …

Somehow, I missed reading this book when it was first published. Somehow, I went straight from Book 10 to Book 12, and I already have Book 13 lined up. When my Scots-born neighbour gave me the first books in this series, I had little idea how much I would come to love them. I’d enjoyed The Portugese Irregular Verbs series, but for some reason I’d never really clicked with the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. And I’ve yet to pick up any Isabel Dalhousie.

A lovely whimsical series best read in order.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

2.5 stars. I think this series needs to be laid to rest now. It's really running out of dramatic steam.

I enjoy Smith's books very much, but Stuart is starting to feel like a metaphorical piñata at this point.

Bertie never disappoints!