Iain McIntosh

When Pat rents a room in Edinburgh, she acquires some interesting neighbors--including a pushy Stockbridge mother and her talented, sax-playing, five-year-old son. Her job at an art gallery hardly keeps her busy until she suspects one painting in the collection may be an undiscovered work by a Scottish master.

"Summer has come to Scotland Street. The long days have prompted its denizens to engage in flights of fancy. Some, like the Duke of Johannesburg's plan to create a microlite seaplane, are literal flights, and some, like the vain Bruce Anderson's idea of settling down with one of his many admirers, are more metaphorical. With the domineering Irene off pursuing academic challenges, Stuart and Bertie are free to indulge in summer fun. Stuart reconnects...

Angus Lordie and Domenica Macdonald are finally tying the knot. Unsurprisingly, Angus is not quite prepared and averting a wedding-day disaster falls to his best man, Matthew. When the newlyweds finally head off on their honeymoon, Angus's dog Cyril goes to stay with the Pollocks--to the delight of one member of the family, and the utter despair of another. The long-suffering Bertie knows firsthand how stringent his mother's rules can be, and he resolves...

"Bertie's mother Irene returns from the Middle East to discover that, in her absence, her son has been exposed to the worst of evils--television shows, ice cream parlors, and even unsanctioned art at the National Portrait Gallery. Her wrath descends on Bertie's long-suffering father, Stuart. But Stuart has found a reason to spend more time outside of the house and seems to have a new spring in his step. What does this mean for the residents of 44...

Still enduring psychotherapy, the precocious Bertie gets a chance to escape when he joins a junior orchestra trip to Paris--where he is accidentally left behind. Never fear for Bertie, though. He quickly finds the silver lining by making friends with students at the Sorbonne. Meanwhile, Domenica Macdonald heads to the Malacca Straits, where she intends to study the economic structure of contemporary pirate culture. And in Edinburgh, Pat entertains...

Now almost seven, Bertie Pollock feels like it is years since his last birthday. Freedom, for Bertie, is represented by turning eighteen and heading for Glasgow, far from Irene, his domineering mother's control, far from his therapist, Italian lessons, Yoga for Tots, gender-neutral birthday presents and saxophone practice. The likeability of Irene and her husband Stuart appear to be progressing in inverse proportion, so it is no surprise that Stuart,...

Professor Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld despairs over an academic rival's undeserved acclaim and stumbles into a haphazard romance with a charming widow before a mountaineering accident catapults him into unwanted fame.

"When two siblings attend an unusual school, aboard a ship, they make new friends, learn about all things nautical, and become involved in a mystery they feel compelled to help solve"--

Professor Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld and his colleagues at the University of Regensburg's Institute of Romance Philology pride themselves on their unwavering commitment to intellectual excellence. They know it is their job to protect a certain civilized approach to the scholarly arts. So when a new deputy librarian, Dr. Hilda Schreiber-Ziegler, threatens to drag them all down a path of progressive inclusivity, they are determined to stop her in...

"In these delightful poems, Alexander McCall Smith writes about his travels, from Africa to Greece, London to Dubai, and back home to Scotland. He shares his gentle, inimitably McCall Smith-esque observations on life, love, and beauty, reminding us how deeply satisfying it can be to take in the world around us with all our senses, and with all our mind and heart"--