Light reading

11:49am Thursday 28th August 2008

THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF SCONES

Alexander McCall Smith (Polygon, £14.99)

A few years ago, this prolific author started writing a serial about the goings-on in a shared house in Edinburgh's Scotland Street, and the episodes were published in The Scotsman. The episodes were collected for the first book in the series, entitled 44, Scotland Street.

The follow-up, Espresso Tales, was equally popular, but after he had finished writing it, McCall Smith planned no further sequels. At a party hosted by the newspaper, he was persuaded by fans to continue the series, and and this is the fifth instalment.

I know exactly how those Scotland Street devotees feel. Once you have entered the whimsical New Town world, the harsh realities of life fade away. Nothing too dramatic ever happens, although in the latest book, Matthew, the art gallery owner, is swept out to sea while his new wife, Elspeth Harmony, looks on in horror. I cannot honestly say whether this latest book was any better or worse than any of its predecessors - the episodic nature of the storytelling makes that hard to judge. I wasn't particularly convinced by the plot about the Jacobites and the Young Pretender, but I loved young Bertie's progress in the cubs. Will he finally escape the clutches of his overbearing mother, who forces him to endure endless psychotherapy sessions? I live in hope.

Bertie is almost discharged by his therapist at this end of this book, but a careless remark means he will have to attend a few more sessions. And that could be great news for Scotland Street fans hoping to enjoy another visit to the Scottish capital. McCall Smith is incredibly prolifiic - he also writes the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, the Sunday Philosophy Club, and the Portuguese Irregular Verbs novels - but this series is surely worth continuing.

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