The Prime of Bertie Pollock
A 44 Scotland Street Novel
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Birlinn General
Published:6th Aug '26
Should be back in stock very soon

To find out where we are going, we sometimes need to find out where we came from.
Sister Maria-Fiore dei Fiori Montagna, who is suffering from an acute identity crisis, wants to know more about her own past, and after doing a DNA test, she discovers that she has a relative she didn’t know about. But her new-found family causes a rift between her and her flatmate, Antonia Collie. Can they work out their differences?
For Bruce, it’s a case of history repeating itself. After getting all the attention he craves – landing a starring role in a new television series – the universe has one way of putting him in his place. Even in a modern Scotland, lurking Calvinist tendencies might still strike.
And Bertie’s dream of getting to the promised land – the Dear Green Place – comes crashing down as he learns that he is to move to the far North East, leaving poor Ranald Braveheart Macpherson a little heartbroken and lost. But upon his return to Edinburgh, the boys take a trip to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, and Bertie’s kindness gets a very royal recognition.
'In its wonderfully entertaining pages you will find love, tolerance and joy, a little poetry and some good home truths'
-- Sally McDonald * Sunday Post *'The ever-so-deft McCall Smith has a light hand on the tiller in this amusing intergenerational tale'
* Scottish Field *'Positivity and finding comfort in the everyday are arguably the defining features of McCall Smith's extensive literary back catalogue of more than 100 novels'
* iNeISBN: 9781846977442
Dimensions: 216mm x 135mm x 20mm
Weight: 422g
288 pages