Project 2017: A Time of Love and Tartan 2019: The Peppermint Tea Chronicles 2020: A Promise of Ankles 2022: Love in the Time of Bertie Characters Major recurring characters Pat MacGregor is twenty (see above) Matthew Duncan, owner of an art gallery and Pat's boss Bertie Pollock, 5-year-old saxophone player who can also speak Italian, son of the dreadful Irene Irene Pollock, Bertie's mother, busybody and disciple of Melanie Klein Domenica MacDonald, their neighbour Bruce Anderson, Pat's narcissistic flatmate Angus Lordie, portrait painter and owner of Cyril Big Lou, owner of coffee bar Stuart Pollock, Bertie's statistician father Elspeth Harmony, Bertie's teacher Minor characters Cyril, Angus's dog with the gold tooth Dr. Hugo Fairbairn, Bertie's psychoanalyst, famous for his study of Wee Fraser Ian Rankin, Scottish novelist of Rebus fame Aloysius (Lard) O'Connor, Glasgow "business man" with the physique of a Munro Ramsey Dunbarton, retired lawyer whose main claim to fame is his erstwhile performance as the Duke of Plaza-Toro in The Gondoliers Duke of Johannesburg, a dubious Duke who likes to philosophize Literary significance and reception Publishers Weekly said that 44 Scotland Street was "episodic, amusing and peopled with characters both endearing and benignly problematic." Library Journal said that "Smith's insightful and comic observations, makes for an amusing and absorbing look at Edinburgh's high society." Bookseller said that "the writing style is understated, and the humour subtle but at times devastating." A stage adaptation, entitled The World According to Bertie, was performed at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Television series In 2019 it was announced that the novels would become a television series. It had already been a series on BBC Radio 4. References External links Official Alexander McCall Smith website 2005 British novels Novels by Alexander McCall Smith Novels first published in serial form Novels set in Edinburgh Works originally published in The Scotsman Polygon Books books