''44 Scotland Street'' is an episodic

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

Alexander McCall Smith Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE (born 24 August 1948), is a British writer. He was raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and formerly Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. He became an expert on medical law an ...

, the author of ''

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency ''The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency'' is a series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith set in Botswana and featuring the character Mma Precious Ramotswe. The series is named after the first novel, published in 1998. Twenty-two novels have been p ...

''. The story was first published as a serial in ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

'', starting 26 January 2004, every weekday, for six months. The book retains the 100+ short chapters of the original. It was partially influenced by

Armistead Maupin Armistead Jones Maupin, Jr. ( ) (born May 13, 1944) is an American writer notable for '' Tales of the City'', a series of novels set in San Francisco. Early life Maupin was born in Washington, D.C., to Diana Jane (Barton) and Armistead Jones Ma ...

's ''

Tales of the City ''Tales of the City'' is a series of nine novels written by American author Armistead Maupin from 1978 to 2014, depicting the life of a group of friends in San Francisco, many of whom are LGBT. The stories from ''Tales'' were originally serial ...

'', a famous serial story. It is the first book in a series of the same name. The series now has 15 books, as of 2021.

Plot introduction

The novel tells the story of Pat, a student during her second

gap year A gap year, also known as a sabbatical year, is typically a year-long break before or after college/university during which students engage in various educational and developmental activities, such as travel or some type of regular work. Gap yea ...

and a source of some worry to her parents, who is accepted as a new tenant at 44 Scotland Street (a real street) in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

's very wealthy New Town (coordinates: ), and her various roommates and neighbours. She falls in love with her

narcissistic Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive interest in one's physical appearance or image and an excessive preoccupation with one's own needs, often at the expense of others. Narcissism exists on a co ...

flatmate Bruce, meets the intriguing and opinionated anthropologist Domenica Macdonald and her friend Angus, and works at an art gallery for Matthew, who was given the gallery as a sinecure position by his wealthy father. While working at the gallery Pat points out to Matthew (who knows almost nothing about art) that one of their paintings looks as if it could be a work of

Samuel Peploe Samuel John Peploe (pronounced PEP-low; 27 January 1871 – 11 October 1935) was a Scottish Post-Impressionist painter, noted for his still life works and for being one of the group of four painters that became known as the Scottish Colouris ...

. After the gallery is broken into Matthew asks Pat to store the painting at their flat until they can check whether it's a genuine Peploe, but Bruce gives the painting to a

raffle A raffle is a gambling competition in which people obtain numbered tickets, each of which has the chance of winning a prize. At a set time, the winners are drawn at random from a container holding a copy of each number. The drawn tickets are che ...

run by the South Edinburgh

Conservative Association A Conservative Association (CA) is a local organisation composed of Conservative Party members in the United Kingdom. Every association varies in membership size but all correspond to a parliamentary constituency in England, Wales, Scotland and No ...

. Matthew and Pat eventually track it down to the (real-life) novelist

Ian Rankin Sir Ian James Rankin (born 28 April 1960) is a Scottish crime writer, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels. Early life Rankin was born in Cardenden, Fife. His father, James, owned a grocery shop, and his mother, Isobel, worked in a sch ...

who gives it back to them. The other major storyline is that of five-year-old Bertie, who is controlled by his pretentious and intellectual mother Irene - he has Grade Six on the saxophone, speaks fluent Italian, and is extremely knowledgeable about various subjects. After he is expelled from his nursery school, Irene sends him to psychotherapy with Dr Fairbairn, who constantly misinterprets Bertie's simple wish to be a normal five-year-old boy.

''44 Scotland Street'' series

*See also:

Bertie Pollock Bertie Pollock is a character in ''The World According to Bertie'' and other novels in the 44 Scotland Street series by Alexander McCall Smith. Bertie, "an endearing 7-year-old boy," has been described as the "most beloved character" in McCall Smi ...

#2005: ''44 Scotland Street'' #2005: '' Espresso Tales'' #2006: '' Love Over Scotland'' #2007: '' The World According to Bertie'' #2008: '' The Unbearable Lightness of Scones'' #2010: '' The Importance of Being Seven'' #2011: '' Bertie Plays The Blues'' #2012: '' Sunshine on Scotland Street'' #2013: '' Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers'' #2015: '' The Revolving Door of Life'' #2016: '' The Bertie Project'' #2017: '' A Time of Love and Tartan'' #2019: '' The Peppermint Tea Chronicles'' #2020: '' A Promise of Ankles'' #2022: '' Love in the Time of Bertie''

Characters

Major recurring characters

*Pat MacGregor is twenty (see above) *Matthew Duncan, owner of an art gallery and Pat's boss *

, 5-year-old saxophone player who can also speak Italian, son of the dreadful Irene *Irene Pollock, Bertie's mother, busybody and disciple of

Melanie Klein Melanie Klein (née Reizes; 30 March 1882 – 22 September 1960) was an Austrian-British author and psychoanalyst known for her work in child analysis. She was the primary figure in the development of object relations theory. Klein suggested t ...

*Domenica MacDonald, their neighbour *Bruce Anderson, Pat's narcissistic flatmate *Angus Lordie, portrait painter and owner of Cyril *Big Lou, owner of coffee bar *Stuart Pollock, Bertie's statistician father *Elspeth Harmony, Bertie's teacher

Minor characters

*Cyril, Angus's dog with the gold tooth *Dr. Hugo Fairbairn, Bertie's psychoanalyst, famous for his study of Wee Fraser *

, Scottish novelist of Rebus fame *Aloysius (Lard) O'Connor, Glasgow "business man" with the physique of a

Munro A Munro () is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nev ...

*Ramsey Dunbarton, retired lawyer whose main claim to fame is his erstwhile performance as the Duke of Plaza-Toro in ''

The Gondoliers ''The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria'' is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances (at that time the ...

'' *Duke of Johannesburg, a dubious Duke who likes to philosophize

Literary significance and reception

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' said that ''44 Scotland Street'' was "episodic, amusing and peopled with characters both endearing and benignly problematic." '' Library Journal'' said that "Smith's insightful and comic observations, makes for an amusing and absorbing look at Edinburgh's high society." ''Bookseller'' said that "the writing style is understated, and the humour subtle but at times devastating." A stage adaptation, entitled The World According to Bertie, was performed at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Television series

In 2019 it was announced that the novels would become a television series. It had already been a series on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

References

External links

Official Alexander McCall Smith website
{{Alexander McCall Smith novels 2005 British novels Novels by Alexander McCall Smith Novels first published in serial form Novels set in Edinburgh Works originally published in The Scotsman Polygon Books books