Scotland Road, Edinburgh. The humour is gentle, the events are hardly events in the usual sense of the word - but they are the everyday activities encountered by most (middle class) people. So there is Bertie (the eponymous hero of this volume) a six year old who just wants to be a normal boy, playing sports, having adventures - much against the wishes of his mother - who avidly reads (and tries to implement) all the latest theories of child rearing. There is leisurely painter Angus and Cyril his dog (accused and arrested for biting), art gallery owner millionaire Matthew, remarkably unsuccessful in love, and most of the characters meet at Big Lou's cafe - and she has become involved with a group of latter day Jacobites. Domenica the anthropologist (recently returned from a field trip to a group of modern day pirates in Malacca) has problems with her former tenant, now neighbour Antonia. All light stuff, but very enjoyable, and the episodic style - short, punchy chapters originating from the publication in daily articles in The Scotsman is so appropriate. Rating: 8/10
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