The Bertie Project: A 44 Scotland Street Novel
BY ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH POLYGON BOOKS, £16.99
The Bertie Project by Alexander McCall Smith is the latest novel in the bestselling 44 Scotland Street series and continues to follow the entertaining lives of the inhabitants of a fictional building on a real street in Edinburgh’s bustling New Town.
In the previous novel of the series, following the departure of his mother Irene to the middle east, seven year-old ever-innocent child genius Bertie Pollock finally felt free from his mother’s controlling and oppressive manner. Now, in this light-hearted eleventh instalment of the series, Irene is back and the reveal of an environment full of disorganisation, cartoons and Irn Bru sees Bertie and his father, Stuart, in big trouble. For the first time, Bertie is thinking about moving out and living with his grandmother so he can escape his mother’s control.
The rest of the characters, several of which are inspired by real life friends of the author, are also moving on with their lives; Big Lou wants to adopt, cool Aussie Bruce has finally fallen in love (this time it’s not with himself), Matthew and Elspeth have invited someone special round for supper, as well as an ongoing calamity threatening the Association of Scottish Nudists’ feud with Nudism Scotland. In this animated novel, there is unlikely to be a single page that isn’t filled with excitement and humour.
Alexander McCall Smith is known around the world for his novels and is one of Scotland’s most popular authors today. He studied Medical Law but later decided to focus on fictional writing after publishing No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, which sold over 25 million copies worldwide. After a random encounter with famous novelist Armistead Maupin in California, McCall was inspired to continue on the old tradition of serialised novels and so began the 44 Scotland Street series. Reported to never miss a day’s witing and to average 1,000 words an hour, he has now finished the eleventh novel and will no doubt continue the series into the future. 44 Scotland Street is currently the longest running serial novel in the world.
‘After a random encounter with famoust novelist Armistead Maupin in California, McCall was inspired to continue on the old tradition of serialised novels and so began the 44 Scotland Street series.’