Young Bertie's friends are up to their usual antics (and tell poor Bertie how dreadfully cold Aberdeen is, way up "north with its polar bears). Through conversations over tea and coffee we are fortunately privy to their gossip, analyses of others, doling out advice, doing crosswords and philosophizing.

Angus had never fallen for that particular attempt to sugar the pill of local deindustrialisation and the deskilling that went with it. As always, I can't wait (but I guess I'll have to) for more musings and little exploits from the crew at 44 Scotland Street. These include the 44 Scotland Street novels, first published as a serial novel in the Scotsman, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the Von Igelfeld series and the Corduroy Mansions novels.We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Two of these were linen, and formed the core of his summer garb, while the others were of an unidentified fabric that Angus referred to as one hundred per cent un-natural.

Miserable he keeps a journal of his woes and then he and Ranald begin a great adventure that while probably not realistic was quite cute.Bertie confides his unhappy situation to his best friend in Edinburgh, Ranald Braveheart Macpherson, and the rest is (hilarious) history. Bertie doesn’t want to go but is told that he must because Irene is his mother, and she has a right to see him. Nicola Pollock ponders the obligation to tolerate those we dislike, perhaps intensely, and compares Irene Pollock to Agrippina, mother of Nero.