McCall Smith has written a lot of books over the last few years since the success of The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and 44 Scotland Street is one of his latest.

44 Scotland Street is literally and figuratively many miles removed from Botswana and the Detective Agency. I have to say that I didn't particularly like it although the characters and the lives they led were well crafted, it was far too anti middle class for me.

This is the sort of book that someone who read the Morning Star in the 1970s should have written. Bruce the narcissistic chartered surveyor, Irene the lunatic mother with her "prodigious child", Pat the ever so slightly frightening young lady on her second gap year, Domenica the delightful confidante.

Excellent characters all. Put them together in the way that McCall Smith has done though and there is the anti middle class agenda.

Bruce is the rugby player with an excellent physique: these lads are wont to admire themselves in the mirror aren't they? Well, I might if I ever got down to my stomach muscles again! He has a really crappy side to his character as he knows that women are attracted to him and he tortures them for it!

Irene is the most interesting case of all. She is certifiable. Her son is five years old and is able to play a musical instrument pretty well and she has been teaching him to speak Italian too. Clearly the boy has some talent. However, she is pushy and over protective of the boy. Everyone who comes into contact with the boy is, by Irene's standards, inferior and not to be trusted. She has, after all, read that book by that child/educational psychologist so she knows, you know.

Irene is also a social climber. Her husband,Stuart, (note, not Stewart) is a shadow in this story and he has lost their car following a drunken night out during which he parked it but cannot remember where!

Pat is a young lady with talent and an inferiority complex, possibly. She has some ability, including the ability to fall for Bruce. She comes to her senses in that department but since she is on her second gap year (we keep being told that as a sort of running joke but never get to the bottom of it!) she isn't up to much. Still, she works for most of the book in a fine art shop and shows something of her worth there: she is part qualified in the art department which is more than can be said for her boss, the owner, Matthew.

Matthew is another anti middle class jibe type character: a bit Time Nice but Dim. Daddy is rich enough to buy small businesses for Matthew and let him potter about with them until they utterly collapse, which they do, at which time they both move on to another venture. matthew is, basically, useless: nice but dim!

The Conservative Party Ball is a gem, however. One of the cast of characters is put in charge of the annual Ball but can only rustle up six attendees. The band is suitably laconic. Personalities are such that despite the fact that they only have six attendees, they start the evening with TWO tables: they don't like one of the couples attending!

Domenica is the sensible confidante who lives in the eponymous 44 Scotland Street (it's a house split into flats and several of the main characters live there) owns a custard coloured Mercedes Benz 560 SEC ... I saw one of those in Bucharest just the other day ... they are very distinctive!

Domenica and Irene don't get on, she doesn't like Bruce, she likes Pat ... she has lots of friends ... and that outstanding car.

Throughout the book is Peploe? Now what is Peploe? Samuel John Peploe (Scottish) 1871 - 1935 is an artist and it seems as though one of the paintings in Matthew's shop might be a Peploe, hence Peploe? It's another running theme. There is a resolution to this sage but I'm not telling what it is!

Well, I hope I have given you a taste for this book and its characters. If this melange of anti middle class writing is to your taste, you'll love it. If your think it's all a bit twee, you won't.

Duncan Williamson
29 January 2006