The English shoes of which he was proudest were a pair of black brogues, made of soft and supple leather, and bought by his father from the London firm of John Lobb.

Since then he has devoted his time to the writing of fiction and has seen his various series of books translated into over forty-six languages and become bestsellers throughout the world. They may not be as elegant as Italian footwear, but Italian shoes would never stand the rigours of Scottish conditions. If these trousers raised eyebrows amongst the ranks of the staid, then Angus did not care in the slightest.That quality of honesty was difficult to define – in shoes at least – but one knew it when one encountered it. Ladies' Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie Series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, and the 44 Scotland Street series. But a chance meeting with Sister Maria Fiore gives him a twinge of conscience but he's not sure if he can back out now. 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.

Angus Lordie, portrait painter, citizen of Edinburgh, husband of Domenica Macdonald and owner (custodian, perhaps, according to modern sensibilities) of Cyril, the only dog in Scotland to have a gold tooth; that Angus Lordie stood in a room of his flat at 44 Scotland Street, wondering what to wear. However, I quickly remembered that these are gentle reads and that there would be a positive outcome! If the Scottish diet had become Mediterranean, then Scottish furniture had become Scandinavian – light and minimalist, consigned to its owners in flat boxes and requiring to be assembled before use – and then reassembled, once the instruction booklet had been read.Warm hearted, humorous and wonderfully wise, Love in the Time of Bertie offers philosophical insight as well as sartorial elegance. Through conversations over tea and coffee we are fortunately privy to their gossip, analyses of others, doling out advice, doing crosswords and philosophizing. I always read books from this series so quickly but am always sad when they are over, not least because I'm not sure if there will be another. and I would like not to think that we were still in the seventeenth century, as divided amongst ourselves as they were at that time, pitted against each other, with one vision of the good battling another, and people despising others for their opinions. He is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and has served on many national and international bodies concerned with bioethics.

Meanwhile, Angus's wife Domenica, an independent anthropologist, is planning to stealthily replace her husband's two antiquated dress jackets. Bruce finds himself involved in a real estate scheme that's illegal but he doesn't want to lose face with his peers especially as one of them is an old school mate.He wore the shoes to his father’s funeral, and as he and farming neighbours carried him to his final rest, a tear fell from Angus’s eye onto the cap of one of the shoes. Now Irene insists her son must visit her for three months, to the dismay of Bertie, his father Stuart and his grandmother Nicola. When you are with somebody you love the smallest, smallest things can be so important, so amusing because love transforms the world, everything. She bemoans how independent privately-funded scholars suffer the condescension of academics, and Angus muses on the alter-ego endowed on him by the bureaucracy. Neither of these descriptions was entirely helpful: the kirk suit was well-made and discreet, rather than Calvinist; the bookie’s suit was not in the least bit flashy, being made of Harris tweed and designed to withstand Hebridean weather – the horizontal rain and Atlantic gusts that beset the West of Scotland, and the North, South, and East for that matter.

After studying art, she went on to work as an illustrator on various projects, including books on science, astronomy and animal behaviour. She let's him in early and they immediately hit it off and it looks like at last Big Lou might find love.The aptly named but surprisingly couth Fat Bob is a professional strongman who raises the tax-deductibility of bacon rolls for his occupation. Bruce seems unconcerned about the immorality of the scheme until an electrifying experience changes his outlook on life. There is astute social observances and deep philosophical musings on a range of topics from the mundane to the deep.