44 SCOTLAND STREET.

44 SCOTLAND STREET by ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH.

BACK COVER BLURB: Alexander McCall Smith's Scotland Street occupies a busy, bohemian corner of Edinburgh's New Town, where the old haute bourgeoisie finds itself having to run shoulders with students, poets and portraitists. And number 44 has more than its fair share of the street's eccentrics and failures.

May contain what some consider spoiler. Simply scroll over should you wish to read the rest of the synopsis. TT

When Pat - on her second gap year and a source of some worry to her parents - is accepted as a new tenant at number 44, she isn't quite sure how long she'll last. Her flatmate Bruce, a rugby-playing chartered surveyor, is impossibly narcissistic, carelessly philandering and infuriatingly handsome. Downstairs lives the gloriously pretentious Irene, whose precocious five-year-old is in therapy after setting fire to his father's copy of the Guardian. And then there is the shrewd, intellectual Domenica MacDonald, mysteriously employed but a sharp-eyed observer of the house's activities in her spare time ...

FIRST SENTENCE {Chapter 1. STUFF HAPPENS}: Pat stood before the door at the bottom of the stair, reading the names underneath the buttons.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 42}: For Bertie, an early arrival was important if he was to secure the train set before the other boys, with lesser moral entitlements, claimed it; for Irene, an early arrival meant that she could speak to the supervisor, Miss Christabel Macfadzean, before she became too distracted by children and parents to give her any attention.

SOURCE: A charity shop buy by Mr T.

MY THOUGHTS: Hurrah, at last! Determined to find a novel by this highly regarded author that I actually enjoyed, I had just about gave up all hope when I came across this little gem.

Like the work of Dickens whose literary success began as a serial publication so 44 Scotland Street was submitted, a chapter a day, in The Scotsman newspaper.

With its short and somewhat contained chapters (a necessity given it being serialised) this was a book that was easy enough to pick up and put down EXCEPT once started I actually found it rather difficult to put aside.

A novel in which arguably nothing much actually happens and when it does its all rather mundane and, well, 'middle class'. But don't let that put you off, the beauty of this book lies in its humour and its oh so wonderfully delicious characters ... I'd never have dreamt I'd fall hook, line and sinker, for a five year old and especially not one as precocious as Bertie.

Read for The What's In A Name? 2016 challenge: 'A book with a country in the title' category.