The Importance of Being Seven

By: Alexander McCall Smith

Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie

Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Perhaps best known for his No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, #1 New York Times best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith delights fans around the world with his warmhearted 44 Scotland Street novels. In the series’ sixth entry, the residents of 44 Scotland Street grapple with problems both trivial and severe, but none so great as when six-year-old Bertie Pollock - who longs to be seven - mislays his mum and learns a valuable lesson about wish fulfillment.

©2010 Alexander McCall Smith (P)2012 Recorded Books

Delicious

Oh how I revel in the daily lives of the folk who live in the vicinity of Scotland Street! Poor benighted Bertie dealing with his horrific mother and demonstrating great insight into baby Ulysses' allergic reaction to her, insecure Matthew (How will he and Elspeth ever cope? Hopefully AMS will tell us in another episode soon), Cyril - the wonder dog, Angus, Domenica, and of course the indomitable Big Lou - how I enjoy them all. Full of gentle wit and cutting humor both, this book is a delight so cleverly written, as are all in this series.

Charm of the Mundane

I have read the first volume of this series and then skipped (for no particular reason) several of the following books picking up #6. It was easy to get reacquainted with the characters.

I think the charm of these books are mostly in how normal the people are that are being described. Reading the books, especially the 44 Scotland Street series always reminds me of good old water cooler gossip... and who doesn't like that.

As for this particular volume: I was hoping to see Bertie featured a little more, but am very happy how the character was developed.

A few far fetched literary devices

A few far fetched literary devices make the scene in Italy a little hard to swallow. However, the scenes with Bertie and his father were sweet and delightful. The storylines of the rest of the cast of characters move forward at various paces. Looking forward to seeing how Elspeth's pregnancy moves along.

enough surprises in the volume

to make it well worth listening to all the way through. The scenes with the various characters are well drawn out and real affection abides in these pages.

This continues to be a strong series

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. I love this series...it is my favorite of McCall Smith's. I always choose to listen to these as audiobooks rather than read them because the narrator does such a terrific job.

What did you like best about this story?

I love the characters that have been developed over the course of this series. The book is very witty.

What does Robert Ian Mackenzie bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I love his Scottish accents. He does a great job of distinguishing the characters without being distracting.

you should probably read the other books first

a nice tell of the lifes of the neighbors that live in a street in Scotland.

it had some fun parts but as this is the only book I have read it felt disjointed and mostly unimportant all that happened.

A journey

Really enjoyed this book the narrator made sure that you are always interested in the development of the characters. I will continue to read I will continue to enjoy the series

Brilliant writing and narration!

I dearly love the way Alexander McCall Smith weaves beauty and truth into his characters. He lends poignancy to people and seemingly mundane situations that inspires me to live my best life.
And the narration is absolutely perfect!

I Never Get Tired of these Books!

The Scotland Street series just gets better with each new addition. The only very slight criticism I can come up with is that most issues get a little too easily addressed by the end; still, there is the unsolved--as yet--worry I carry about Bertie and his very odd mother, and the somewhat benign concern that Bruce will never truly reform, so the series never becomes tiresome. I am so spoiled by Alex. Smith's storytelling that--even though I have a fairly full library of as yet unread books--I keep coming back and checking to see if there's another Scotland Street sequel for me to try. I laughed out loud many times as I listened to this one, and could hardly wait for a new opportunity to keep going.

Enjoyable, but not the best in the series

I'm a big fan of the 44 Scotland Street series, and have read or listened to all of the previous books. As usual, the performance of Robert Ian Mackenzie was spot on, and I really enjoyed listening. However, I found the plot of this book to be much darker than the previous books, which I did not enjoy. And the feminist in me took umbrage more than once, for example (hopefully this is not a spoiler): a conflict between women ending in hair pulling. Really?
But overall I really enjoyed listening to this book, and will certainly listen to future books in this series.