‘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