44 SCOTLAND STREET - Book 5 The residents and neighbors of 44 Scotland Street and the city of Edinburgh come to vivid life in these gently satirical, wonderfully perceptive serial novels, featuring six-year-old Bertie, a remarkably precocious boy—just ask his mother.   Featuring all the quirky characters we have come to know and love, The Unbearable Lightness of Scones , finds Bertie, the precocious six-year-old, still troubled by his rather overbearing mother, Irene, but seeking his escape in the Cub Scouts. Matthew is rising to the challenge of married life with newfound strength and resolve, while Domenica epitomizes the loneliness of the long-distance intellectual. Cyril, the gold-toothed star of the whole show, succumbs to the kind of romantic temptation that no dog can resist and creates a small problem, or rather six of them, for his friend and owner Angus Lordie.   With his customary deftness, Alexander McCall Smith once again brings us an absorbing and entertaining tale of some of Scotland's most quirky and beloved characters--all set in the beautiful, stoic city of Edinburgh. *Starred Review* There’s much ado at Edinburgh’s 44 Scotland Street, the fictional residence in McCall Smith’s whimsical series. This fifth installment (after The World according to Bertie, 2008) finds more angst for six-year-old genius Bertie, who desperately wants to join the Cub Scouts. Irene, his excruciatingly overbearing mother, dismisses such desires as uncivilized. (Aren’t the young lad’s yoga and Italian lessons stimulating enough?) Meanwhile, milquetoast gallery-owner Matthew brushes with death while on honeymoon in Australia, vain and vacuous Bruce ponders a plum modeling assignment, and lonely intellectual Domenica suspects her neighbor Antonia of dealing drugs. (The woman did steal a blue Spode teacup after all; could more dire crimes be far behind?) Domenica and portrait painter Angus Lordie consider ways to expose Antonia’s illegal activities, while Angus’ perceptive canine Cyril looks on. (Cyril has been engaged in some roguish behavior of his own, fathering a litter of six playful pups.) In the book’s preface, McCall Smith wryly insists that his tale is “entirely true, or almost.” While the actual Scotland Street doesn’t quite reach 44, one can easily imagine the likes of Bertie wearily marching off to the psychiatrist, Bruce preening before every available mirror, and Cyril epitomizing the old adage about man’s best friend. Who wouldn’t want to live among this endlessly lively crew? --Allison Block Praise for the 44 Scotland Street series:   "Just about perfect. . . . Contains a healthy helping of McCall Smith's patented charm." -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Delightful. . . . Sweet. . . . Graceful. . . . Wonderful. . . . Alexander McCall Smith writes faster than most people read, which is good news for [his] legions of fans who rarely have to go more than a few months without a new fix of his gentle but powerfully addicting fiction."-- Entertainment Weekly "Delightfully charming. . . . McCall Smith's plots offer wit, charm and intrigue in equal doses."-- Richmond Times Dispatch "Entertaining and witty. . . . A sly send-up of society in Edinburgh."-- Orlando Sentinel "Mr. McCall Smith, a fine writer, paints his hometown of Edinburgh as indelibly as he captures the sunniness of Africa. We can almost feel the mists as we tread the cobblestones."-- The Dallas Morning News "Alexander McCall Smith is the most genial of writers and the most gentle of satirists. . . . [The] characters are great fun . . . [and] McCall Smith treats all of them with affection." -- Rocky Mountain News Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the international phenomenon The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie Series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, and the 44 Scotland Street series. He is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and has served on many national and international bodies concerned with bioethics. 1. Love, Marriage and Other Surprises The wedding took place underneath the Castle, beneath that towering, formidable rock, in a quiet church that was reached from King’s Stables Road. Matthew and Elspeth Harmony had made their way there together, in a marked departure from the normal routine in which the groom arrives first, to be followed by the bride, but only after a carefully timed delay, enough to make the more anxious members of her family look furtively at their watches – and wonder.     Customs exist to be departed from, declared Matthew. He had pointedly declined to have a stag party with his friends but had nonetheless asked to be included in the hen party that had been organised for Elspeth.     “Stag parties are dreadful,” he pronounced. “Everybody has too much to drink and the groom is subjected to all sorts of insults. Left without his trousers by the side of the canal and so on. I’ve seen it.”     “Not always,” said Elspeth.