44 Scotland Street

44 Scotland Street, Book 1

By: Alexander McCall Smith

Narrated by: Hilary Neville

The story revolves around the comings and goings at No. 44 Scotland Street, a fictitious building in a real street in Edinburgh. Immediately recognisable are the Edinburgh chartered surveyor, stalwart of the Conservative Association, who dreams of membership of Scotland's most exclusive golf club. We have the pushy Stockbridge mother, and her prodigiously talented five-year-old son, who is making good progress with the saxophone and with his Italian. Then there is Domenica Macdonald who is that type of Edinburgh lady who sees herself as a citizen of a broader intellectual world. In McCall Smith's hands such characters retain charm and novelty, simultaneously arousing both mirth and empathy. 44 Scotland Street is vintage McCall Smith, tackling issues of trust and honesty, snobbery and hypocrisy, love and loss, but all with great lightness of touch. Clever, elegant and funny, this is a novel that provides huge entertainment but which is underpinned by the moral dilemmas of everyday life and the characters' struggles to resolve them.

©2005 Alexander McCall Smith (P)2011 Hachette Digital

Loved everything about it

Lovely start to the series. Trademark Alexander McCall Smith - gentle and touching characterisations, subtle observations, a delight to read - and this is a superbly narrated version.

Blah

What would have made 44 Scotland Street better?

getting to the point quicker - it rambled on and on about nothing of importance

What could Alexander McCall Smith have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

cut out at least 50 chapters. Created characters that had at least some redeeming qualities - they were all vapid, boring , self obsessed and insipid.

Which character – as performed by Hilary Neville – was your favorite?

she did a great job considering how little she had to work with

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

not really

Any additional comments?

completely mis represented in the reviews. Did these people actually listen to this drivel??