All of your favourite characters from 44 Scotland Street – Bertie, Irene, Cyril, Matthew and Big Lou included – made a welcome return to the Scotsman newspaper this week, with fresh instalments starting on Monday 24 January and a weekly update due to be posted on the Scotsman website (we’ll pass on the link when it’s available!)

Don’t miss out. Read it in the paper every day and catch up with previous volumes now available in paperback (and The Importance of Being Seven in hardback).

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9 comments on this article to-date:

1. Selene says:

   January 28, 2011 at 10:24 am

   Hi everybody,
   I love these books and I utilize them trying to improve my English (I’m Italian).
   I noticed that in US website there are also three books of Portuguese Irregular Verbs serie but the serie is not mentioned in UK website…so I’m quite curious to know why, if it is possible

   Thank you

   Cheers

   Sele

   PS Mr McCall Smith have you ever thought about organizing a date between Isabel and Irene, Bertie’s mum? :)
2. admin says:

   January 28, 2011 at 12:20 pm

   Hi Selene –

   The ‘Von Igelfeld’ stories are currently only available in the UK in audiobook format (read by Hugh Laurie!). Please see the audiobooks page of the site for details.
3. Vincent M. Gauthier says:

   February 22, 2011 at 2:56 pm

   Hi Selene and “Admin”,
   Should we understand that the Von Igelfeld books will also appear in print one day ?
   Looking forward to that !
4. Cathy Blake says:

   April 12, 2011 at 12:15 am

   Where can I find the complete novel–is it no longer available on The Scotsman?
   Will it be out in book form soon? If so, what is the title?
   Thanks–I missed this when it started–now all I can find are the summaries.
5. Amy says:

   May 10, 2011 at 5:53 pm

   Is it possible for those of us in the US to read The Importance of Being 7 on the Scotsman website? I’ve checked the newspaper’s website, but the story appears to start well after the end of The Unbearable Lightness of Scones. I’d love to continue reading the story. Many thanks! These delightful characters help me unwind at the end of busy days!
6. Archie White says:

   July 4, 2011 at 7:14 pm

   Do we know when the latest (seventh) Scotland Street novel will be published in book form? Will it be in time for my birthday – 28th July – so that I might get it for free?

   The following question has probably been asked before, several times; but bear with me. I wonder if Mr McCall Smith has ever lost a dog and had it returned? This has happened to both Cyril in Scotland Street and to Freddie de la Hay in Corduroy Mansions.
7. anne jackson says:

   July 22, 2011 at 6:39 am

   Does anyone have a spare copy of the map In the footsteps of 44 Scotland Street? I understand it was published in The Scotsman Newspaper a couple of years ago. I would be most grateful if anyone could let me have a copy.
8. Elvia Williams says:

   August 29, 2011 at 12:52 am

   I just discovered the 44 Scotland St. series quite by accident when I was looking for books to read on my library website in San Diego, CA. My daughter had recommended the # 1 Ladies detective agncy prior to that but I started “The World According To Bertie, read the one following that and am now trying to read the earlier versions. Mr. McCall Smith has such a sly sense of humor that I find myself LOL all the time. I called my sister and recommended him to her. Please continue writing. I’m going to see if my library carries The Importance of Being Seven.
9. Archie White says:

   September 25, 2011 at 8:36 pm

   Selene (1) and Vincent (3)

   Have you looked in a second-hand bookshop, or tried an on-line website such as Amazon, for a second-hand copy of the Von Igelfeld books? I have a second-hand paperback, published in 2004, entitled “The 2 1/2 [two and a half] Pillars of Wisdom”. It includes “Portuguese Irregular Verbs”, “The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs” and “At The Villa of Reduced Circumstances”

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