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Espresso Tales: The Latest from 44 Scotland Street
 
 

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Espresso Tales: The Latest from 44 Scotland Street (Paperback)

by Alexander McCall Smith (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Frequently Bought Together

Espresso Tales: The Latest from 44 Scotland Street + Love Over Scotland: 44, Scotland Street, Volume 3 + The World According to Bertie: A 44 Scotland Street Novel
Price For All Three: £14.28

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Product details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Abacus (1 Jun 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0349119708
  • ISBN-13: 978-0349119700
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.6 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 6,258 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #13 in  Books > Fiction > World > Scottish

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Product Description

Review

'It is hard to think of a contemporary writer more genuinely engaging...(his) novels are also extremely funny: I find it impossible to think about them without smiling' Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday 'A treasure of a writer whose books deserve immediate devouring' Marcel Berlins, Guardian 'As warm as cocoa, as cosy as thermal underwear, and just what the doctor ordered for the cold winter evenings' THE TIMES


Product Description

In Espresso Tales, Alexander Mc Call Smith returns home to Edinburgh and the glorious cast of his own tales of the city, the residents of 44 Scotland Street, with a new set of challenges for each one of them. Bruce, the intolerably vain and perpetually deluded ex-surveyor, is about to embark on a new career as a wine merchant, while his long-suffering flatmate Pat MacGregor, set up by matchmaking Domenica Macdonald, finds herself invited to a nudist picnic in Moray Place in the pursuit of true love. Prodigious six-year-old Bertie Pollock wants a boy's life of fishing and rugby, not yoga and pink dungarees, and he plots rebellion against his bossy, crusading mother Irene and his psychotherapist Dr Fairbairn. But when Bertie's longed-for trip to Glasgow with his ineffectual father Stuart ends with Bertie taking money off legendary Glasgow hard man Lard O'Connor at cards, it looks as though Bertie should have been more careful what he wished for. And all the time it appears that both Irene Pollock and Dr Fairbairn are engaged in a struggle with dark secrets and unconscious urges of their own.
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Espresso Tales: The Latest from 44 Scotland Street
79% buy the item featured on this page:
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The Unbearable Lightness of Scones: 44 Scotland Street 05 3.6 out of 5 stars (11)
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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Complete joy to read!, 3 Oct 2005
By A Customer
This review is from: Espresso Tales (44 Scotland Street) (Hardcover)
The second installment of the to-ings & fro-ings of 44 Scotland Street is even better than the first. With gentle humour, Alexander McCall Smith details the genteel lives of the occupants of that address, and the concerns and issues of their middle class lives (should boys have pink bedrooms to dispel gender stereotypes?). The style of writing is deceptively light, as he does indulge in some big philosophical questions through his characters and it includes discussions on the Iraq war.

The best bit of the book is in the preface - where he notes that he has decided to write a third volume!

Finally - if you are enjoying this series of books you might also enjoy the E.F.Benson 'Lucia' series of books which are equally as humorous and engaging, and have a similar charm.

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Complete Delight!, 31 May 2007
By S. Barnes (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
If you don't find this book laugh-out-loud funny, then you will have altogether missed the point! Every bit as delightful as 44 Scotland Street, the parody of Edinburgh characters continues in the author's usual witty fashion, with scenes of the ridiculous (but often not altogether impossible) and individual personality traits highlighted to the greatest degree. It's a superb comment upon the ridiculous... In fact, do we even realise how ridiculous our society can potentially be!?

Get back in touch with old friends from 44 Scotland Street. There's Pat, the young 20-something soon-to-be student... should she go to the nudist party at Moray Place? She's still working in the Art Gallery for Matthew & it's now turning a profit... can Matthew find some confidence? The erstwhile narcissistic Bruce had decided upon the wine trade as his latest venture, having recently been fired from his career as a chartered surveyor... of course, it doesn't bother him in the slightest that he knows nothing at all about wine! Pat's neighbour and friend Domenica is still there with her insightful comments upon humankind. So too, Angus & his faithful friend, Cyril. But more to the point, this book focuses most of all upon little Bertie (now 6) and his insufferably pushy mother, Irene. Can Stuart stand up to Irene and let Bertie be a little boy? Bertie is finding his way, having just started school, he is now tentatively trying to make friends & "fit in". But this is difficult for Bertie with his pink dungarees, his pink bedroom, his yoga classes, and Italian lessons, the sessions with the psychotherapist & his Grade 7 saxophone. Bertie wants to love mummy all the time... but is finding it very difficult...

Just as its predecessor the book is written with short pithy chapters (over 100 of them), each presenting a mini-story & social commentary of their own. Some reviewers have found the political chapters boring, but that IS totally the point - read them & you'll see why & don't worry, they're short! I loved every bit of this book & everyone with a good sense of humour should find something to enjoy.
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36 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars 21st Century Dickens in Edinburgh, 12 Jul 2005
By Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)      
This review is from: Espresso Tales (44 Scotland Street) (Hardcover)
Alexander McCall Smith has helped recreate the daily serialized newspaper-published novel with 44 Scotland Street. In 110 tasty snippets, he introduces vast numbers of memorable characters, expands the action, provides 109 cliff hangers and deliciously complicates the plot. With a spare style and a twinkle in his eye, the author gives us plenty to chuckle about in unveiling the pretensions of the self-congratulatory urbanized upper crust.

Pat is taking a second year off from her college studies. The first year off didn't work quite as she had hoped. Pat is delighted to find a flat she can share with the handsome, if self-absorbed, Bruce, and two perpetually missing flat mates. She quickly finds a job working in an art gallery where the owner, Chris, knows even less about what he's doing than she does. On the same floor in her building is a delightful older woman, Domenica, who knows where all the bodies are buried. Through the walls, Pat can hear little Bertie practicing his saxophone for his mother, Irene . . . who's obsessed with having her son become a civilized genius. Bertie has other ideas.

The cast of characters is soon off on a mad-cap scramble through life whose continuing plot thread is a painting that just might be valuable . . . if only someone can figure out who painted it . . . and where it is. Along the way, lust rears its powerful chemistry and Pat learns to tell the good guys from the bad.

The story reminded me very much of the best of Maeve Binchy's novels about modern Dublin. 44 Scotland Street has the advantage over Ms. Binchy because Alexander McCall Smith is able to deftly develop his story so rapidly with sure visual pictures while bringing out the humor . . . rather than the painful melodrama . . . in everyday living.

I found myself roaring with laughter throughout the book. There's lots of use of psychiatry to develop the humor. I thought that the scenes with Irene and Bertie's analyst were irresitible! I didn't know that you could have so much fun while sober in Scotland.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars McCall Smith is a genius
Although all what McCall Smith has written so far is great, but only the No. 1 ladies detective agency series I can give 5 stars to. Read more
Published 3 months ago by J. Hilal

5.0 out of 5 stars Espresso Tales
Another excellent slice of Edinburgh life from the marvellous McCall Smith. The characters continue to amuse and engage and this recording is definitely not one to lull you to... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Rowena Plummer

4.0 out of 5 stars Deceptively gentle but cutting humour and observations
I admit to being a great fan of McCall Smith's writing with his incisive wit and observations. He is a master of the ironic understatement. Read more
Published 8 months ago by John M

5.0 out of 5 stars Bertie continues to grow
The cast of characters from 44 Scotland Street continue to delight. It is worth reading this book just to see whether Bertie can escape the clutches of his mother but there is... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Swindon Queso

4.0 out of 5 stars Comfortably entertaining
I enjoyed the first book in the 44 Scotland Street series and wanted to know more about the varied Edinburgh residents introduced therein. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Bluebell

5.0 out of 5 stars I wish I knew the People that live at 44 Scotland Street...
...if nothing else they are entertaining. This is the second in Alexander McCall Smiths 44 Scotland Street series. Read more
Published on 9 Jun 2007 by A. Hope

4.0 out of 5 stars More a yummy frappuccino
If anyone takes this book seriously, they're making a mistake. I've just finished Espresso Tales and from reading 44 Scotland Street I knew I was in for a light read and had to... Read more
Published on 1 Jan 2007 by D. Frydman

3.0 out of 5 stars McYawn!
Well, I loved the first book, tube travel has never been such a pleasure! On more than one occasion I contemplated sitting on the Northern Line all the way to High Barent - it... Read more
Published on 7 Dec 2006 by Ms. G. Jenkins

3.0 out of 5 stars 44 Scotland Street Gets A Kick
Well, it looks as though the commute is doing its job because suddenly I am falling behind in my blogging, as opposed to my reading. Read more
Published on 17 Sep 2006 by S. Icken

1.0 out of 5 stars Dreadfully disappointing.
An extremely poor effort from McCall-Smith after a promising but flawed start in 44 Scotland Street. Read more
Published on 15 Aug 2006 by M. I. R. Clarke

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