44 Scotland Street - Alexander McCall Smith

Take one house, and a pocket full of characters who all rent rooms in the house. The house in number 44 Scotland Street, situated in a rather bohemian part of Edinburgh's New Town. The characters are a real mixture of society, often pushing the boundaries of the word 'norm' to the extreme. It is the principal characters which reside in the house, but along the way other characters are introduced and cultivated, to produce an interesting and enjoyable novel called 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith. The story is more like an number of interlocking short stories. Firstly there is Pat, a 21 year old student who is on her second gap year. She seems lost ...  Read the complete review

I'm not the worlds biggest crime reader. Police officers, and tired out detectives aren't usually featured on my books to read list. The closest this book came to approaching some kind of crime was a shop being broken into, and even then it was only worth about 2 pages. Yet for some unknown reason without even reading or picking it up I thought that it involved all kinds of criminal activity. Anyhow I was stuck for something to read, saw this on the shelf and whad'ya know I was pleasantly surprised! Alexander McCall Smith was born in Zimbabwe and was educated there before moving to Scotland, studying law at the University of Edinburgh. Since becoming a ...  Read the complete review

44 Scotland Street is a rather unique offering by Alexander McCall Smith of The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency fame. Born in Zimbabwe, the author completed a portion of his education in Scotland and is in fact married to a Scot. In his quite delightful Preface he explains how the novel was the result of mouthing off about the death of the serialised novel in a Scottish newspaper. "The Scotsman" editorial staff took up his challenge and Alexander McCall Smith was forced to put his money where his pen was. "44 Scotland Street" was the result, published in daily portions. The novel explores the lives of the residence of "44 Scotland ...  Read the complete review

44 Scotland street - Alexander McCall Smith Fabulous !!, thats what I thought when I finished reading this wonderfully written book, and if you have lived in Edinburgh or just have a love of the city, I'm sure you'll love it too. It is written by Alexander McCall Smith,who is also the author of the best seller "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency". He ahs a brilliant way of describing the interesting characters in the book which include a young woman called Pat, who is on her second gap year and the trials and tribulations she encounters when she moves in to a new flat in Scotland Street with the vain Bruce, who is a chartered surveyor who ...  Read the complete review

After reading the fantastic Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency books, I decided to give the 44 Scotland Street Novels a go - the idea initally started out as a coloumnin the Scotsman if my memory serves me correct. 44 Scotland Street I feel is designed to introduce us to the characters and gain an understanding of their personalities and querks during each chapter. The charachters are: Bruce who is portrayed as having a rather large ego and a fondness for hair gel. Pat who moves out of home and rents a room in Bruces flat and developes crush on him. Irene the overbearing mum with a 5 year old son called Bertie who ...  Read the complete review