Portuguese Irregular Verbs

By: Alexander McCall Smith

Narrated by: Hugh Laurie

Winner of the British Book Awards, Author of the Year, 2004.
Winner of the CWA Dagger in the Library Award, 2004.

Alexander McCall Smith, best-selling author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, has turned his hand to humour. The delightful result is a creation of comic genius. For in the unnaturally tall form of Professor Doctor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, we are invited to meet a memorable character whose sublime insouciance is a blend of the cultivated pomposity of Frasier Crane and of Inspecteur Clouseau's hapless gaucherie.

Von Igelfeld inhabits the rarefied world of the Institute of Romance Philology at Regensburg, a world he shares with his equally tall and equally ridiculous colleagues, Professors Florianus Prinzel and Detlev Amadeus Unterholzer. Their unlikely adventures are described in three deliciously funny instalments: Portuguese Irregular Verbs, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs, and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances.

©2003 Alexander McCall Smith; (P)2004 Time Warner AudioBooks

Hugh Laurie rocks!

I love Alexander McCall Smith and read with pleasure just about everything he writes. Although the characters in his 44 Scotland Street and (sadly arrested after just three novels) Corduroy Mansions series are closer to my heart than those in Portuguese Irregular Verbs, this is possibly his funniest collection. The humour is delightfully absurd. But it is Hugh Laurie's outstanding narration that has motivated me to write a review. It is absolute perfection.

Listen again and again

I don't know if there is category called best re-listenable, if there is then this is No.1. This is a lovely book and Hugh Laurie does a superb job; fills each character with a unique personality and reads with such dry wit. I truely love this audiobook.

Very sweet satirical book.

Another excellent book by Alexander McCall Smith. I do recommend it highly. A delightful performance by Hui Laurie