The Sunday Philosophy Club Alexander McCall Smith

This is kind of a spin-off from the 44 Scotland St series, which I really enjoyed. It's very light reading, from a reasonably heavy-weight intellectual. Professor Alexander McCall Smith works in medical and criminal law at the University of Edinburgh, and, somewhere between textbooks, students and awards, writes lovely Scottish fluff such as this and a series about a female private detective in the Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Too much time on his hands, me thinks. If I was his work, I'd be keeping a closer on on how he spends his 'hours'...

Anyway, so. On the book: lovely.

Professor McCall Smith uses the vehicle of an older woman of independent means to discuss, in a non-academic forum, some little of life's little, well, brain teasers. Isabel Delhousie, editor of the Review of Applied Ethics, her housekeeper Grace, and her niece Cat allow us to ponder questions like 'do you tell when you know someone's partner is cheating?', and 'what does it mean when a young man wears crushed strawberry coloured corduroy trousers?'. Through them we're invited to consider the perspectives of the young & old and the wealthy & the working class, all against a backdrop of Edinburgh and interspersed with conversations about cheese, wine & art. Oh, to be a woman of independent means...

Simply delightful reading on a train North.