Author | Alexander McCall Smith |
---|---|
Cover artist | Iain McIntosh |
Country | Scotland |
Language | English |
Genre | Serial novel |
Publisher | The Scotsman (serial), Polygon Books (book form) |
Publication date | 2004-2005 (orig. serial) 2005 (novel form) |
Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) & Serial |
ISBN | 978-0-349-11970-0 |
OCLC | 62796274 |
Preceded by | 44 Scotland Street |
Followed by | Love over Scotland |
Espresso Tales is a novel by Alexander McCall Smith, the author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency . The story was first published as a serial novel in The Scotsman, like its predecessor, 44 Scotland Street . The book retains the 100+ short chapters of the original.
The novel continues to follow Pat Macgregor, a student who has taken a second gap year and who is unsure about her future direction, and the lives of her friends, roommates and fellow tenants at 44 Scotland Street.
Pat is still sharing a flat with Bruce, the good-looking egoist, although she is no longer attracted to him. She decides to go back to university and obtains a place at Edinburgh, but still works part-time in Matthew's art gallery. Her friend and neighbour Domenica, the anthropologist, tries to help Pat with her love life by making the acquaintance of a good-looking waiter, but when he takes her to a nudist picnic Pat realises he is not for her. Domenica develops an interest in pirates and makes plans to travel to the South China Sea for some field-work.
Matthew is upset when his wealthy businessman father finds a girlfriend, and misjudges her motives. He confides in Big Lou at the cafe, who has learned that her long-lost lover is returning to Scotland and hopes to resume their relationship. Far from being a gold-digger, Matthew's father's girlfriend persuades him to give Matthew £4 million. Matthew still cherishes feelings for Pat, but they are not returned.
Ramsey Dunbarton, the lawyer, writes his memoirs and reads them to his wife.
Stuart and Irene Pollock continue to hothouse their five-year-old son Bertie Pollock, whom Irene regards as a child prodigy. [1] He yearns to go to Watson's school and play rugby, even securing a blazer and sneaking into lessons, but is sent to the Steiner School instead. He remains in psychotherapy, and his mother is impressed and attracted by the therapist, Dr Fairbairn, who is troubled by guilt. Bertie and his father have an adventure, travelling to Glasgow on the train to recover their car, which Stuart has left there accidentally. They meet a gangster, Lard O'Connor, who takes a fancy to Bertie and helps them recover their car, but Bertie soon realises that although the registration number is the same, the car is not. Stuart realises how hard life is for Bertie because of his mother's expectations, and begins to stand up for his son a little more. Irene insults Angus Lordie's dog Cyril, who bites her. She announces that she is pregnant.
Bruce loses his job after he is caught enjoying a romantic meal with his employer's wife, and is rejected by his American girlfriend. He decides to become a wine merchant and almost persuades a rich friend into partnership, but is foiled by the friend's girlfriend, to whom he is rude and dismissive. He fears that some Chateau Petrus he has bought cheaply may be bogus, but it is genuine and with the profit he makes on it at auction he moves to London and puts the flat at 44 Scotland Street up for sale.
Kevin Webster is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street. Portrayed by Michael Le Vell, the character first appeared on-screen during the episode airing on 19 October 1983. Le Vell was suspended from the soap in February 2013 due to allegations of sexual offences, with scenes he had already filmed cut from broadcast. Le Vell was found not guilty of all charges in September 2013, and briefly returned in early 2014, before taking another 3-month break from the show and returning once again.
The Code of the Woosters is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 7 October 1938, in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States by Doubleday, Doran, New York. It was previously serialised in The Saturday Evening Post (US) from 16 July to 3 September 1938, illustrated by Wallace Morgan, and in the London Daily Mail from 14 September to 6 October 1938.
Matthew "Matt" Hancock is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Neighbours, played by Stephen Hunt. He made his first on screen appearance on 26 March 2001 and departed on 9 May 2002. In 2005, Hunt reprised his role as Matt for the show's 20th anniversary episode.
44 Scotland Street is an episodic novel by Alexander McCall Smith, the author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. The story was first published as a serial in The Scotsman, starting 26 January 2004, every weekday, for six months. The book retains the 100+ short chapters of the original. It was partially influenced by Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, a famous serial story. It is the first book in a series of the same name. The series now has 15 books, as of 2021.
How late it was, how late is a 1994 stream-of-consciousness novel written by Scottish writer James Kelman. The Glasgow-centred work is written in a working-class Scottish dialect, and follows Sammy, a shoplifter and ex-convict.
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Breakfast on Pluto is a 2005 comedy-drama film written and directed by Neil Jordan and based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Patrick McCabe, as adapted by Jordan and McCabe. The film stars Cillian Murphy as a transgender male foundling searching for love and his long-lost mother in small town Ireland and London in the 1970s.
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A Dark so Deadly is a 2017 detective fiction novel written by Stuart MacBride. Set in the fictional town of Oldcastle, it follows the Misfit Mob - a detective unit of Scottish police made up of officers who were sidelined from mainstream cases for various reasons. Tasked with what is seemingly a case of theft of a mummy from a museum, they later find that the found body was the work of a serial killer who mummifies his victims. The story proceeds to chronicle their attempts to find the perpetrator.
Bertie Pollock is a character in The World According to Bertie and other novels in the 44 Scotland Street series by Alexander McCall Smith. Bertie, "an endearing 7-year-old boy," has been described as the "most beloved character" in McCall Smith's novels.
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A Song for the Dark Times is the 23rd installment in the Inspector Rebus series written by Ian Rankin. The phrase "dark times" was meant to refer to the era of Brexit, autocratic leaders, and so on, as of 2019, but the book was published in 2020, in a period of COVID-19 lockdowns. The title is from one of the book’s epigraphs, Bertolt Brecht on “singing in/about the dark times”; also, “Songs for the Dark Times” is the title Siobhan Clarke gives to a CD compilation she has burned for John Rebus, which he plays while driving north in his car.