the careful use of compliments by alexander mccall smith

Isabel Dalhousie is an inquisitive and philosophizing young lady, but she lacks street smarts.

Immense learning and a lifetime of experience combined with careful, playful observation make each one of his books a harried literate modern’s Great Escape. and soon finds herself diverging from her philosophical musings about fatherhood onto a path that leads her into the mysteries of the art world and the soul of an artist.įor a great light read, why not start with the eminently civilised novels of McCall Smith?

Are these paintings forgeries? This proves to be sufficient fodder for Isabel's inquisitiveness. And when she attends an art auction, she finds an irresistible puzzle: two paintings attributed to a now-deceased artist appear on the market at the same time, and both of them exhibit some unusual characteristics. None of these things, however, in any way diminshes Isabel's curiosity. In the midst of all this, she receives a disturbing letter announcing that she has been ousted as editor of the Review of Applied Ethics by the ambitious Professor Dove. Charlies, her newborn son, presents her with a myriad wonders of a new life, and doting father Jamie presents her with an intriguing proposal: marriage. In addition to being the nosiest and most sympathetic philosopher you are likely to meet, Isabel is now a mother. These visits give me the chance to meet many readers of these books, so if we have not yet met, perhaps we shall do so before too long.Isabel Dalhousie is back, in the latest installment of this enchanting, already beloved, best-selling series. I was in the United States in the spring this year and will return in the Fall. Each of these series will have a new novel written this year, and I am also planning to revisit the three German professors of the Portuguese Irregular verbs series. As it is, I feel that we still have quite a bit to hear from her – as we do, too, from Isabel Dalhousie, heroine of my Edinburgh novels, and all the denizens of 44 Scotland Street. If it weren’t for the encouragement this has given me, my long conversation with Mma Ramotswe would have ended far earlier. I would like to thank you for all your support. There is nothing to do on the island but to contemplate its beauty-and its name. You reach this charming little island on a tiny boat. This gallery, housed in an extraordinary red sandstone building topped with spikes and twirls, contains a pictorial record of Scots over the ages-the handsome, the deluded, the unfortunate, the inventive-they’re all there.Ī lovely little palace in lush countryside, where the father of Mary Queen of Scots turned his face to the wall and predicted the end of the Stuart dynasty.

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh A Message from Author Alexander McCall Smith

The careful use of compliments by alexander mccall smith