Alexander McCall Smith, The Bertie Project (Polygon 2016)
Portrait painter Angus Lordie, his friend art gallery owner Matthew and Angus’s dog Cyril are at the Cumberland Bar in Edinburgh. Matthew informs him that Bruce has a new Australian girlfriend, and Angus later reports the news to his wife Domenica.
In the flat below, 7-year-old Bertie Pollock is doing a jigsaw puzzle. His mother Irene remonstrates with her husband Stuart that his mother Nicola had allowed Bertie and the baby Ulysses to watch television, offending her views on child psychology and her plans for ‘the Bertie Project’. Meanwhile, Nicola receives a letter from her husband in Portugal, Abril, asking for a divorce. God has spoken to him, he says, and suggested he marry Maria the housekeeper. The news brings Nicola to a revelation: her life’s focus needs to be on ‘freeing’ Bertie.
Big Lou attends to cleaning her café, while thinking of the proposed adoption of her foster-child Finlay. The authorities say they must ‘be sure of her motivation’. Matthew’s assistant Pat checks her proofs, while Big Lou chats with vascular surgeon Hugh. Bruce is in love with Australian extreme sports enthusiast Clare.
Matthew and Elspeth have invited for supper their neighbour the Duke of Johannesburg, from whom they bought the house, who shows them a neat trick for uncurdling hollandaise sauce. One of Matthew’s and Elspeth’s triplets has Hand-Foot-Mouth disease. When the two Danish au pairs refuse to help, they are sacked.
Out on a school trip, Bertie espies his father with another woman. Bertie says forlornly to his gran, ‘Can I come live with you?’ She, Nicola, is delighted to hear that Daddy has a lady friend.
The plot meanders here and there, focussing on this character and that, some residents of 44 Scotland Street, some further afield—like the Association of Scottish Nudists and its committee crisis—but we are happy to go along for the ride. The humour is witty, sweet, and the writing excellent.
McCall Smith is best known for his adorable No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. This novel is 11th in his 44 Scotland Street series.
Susie Helme 
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