The importance of being seven

Really enjoyed this book after having taken a break from the 44 Scotland Street series for a while. I had forgotten the brilliance of McCall Smith's insights into human nature and the significance of all our daily interactions. Wonderfully rich, complicated characters and very well written. I don't know how he writes so many books a year without sacrificing quality.

Of course, as a former Waldorf school student with a psychologist parent, I particularly love Bertie. His adventures with psychotherapy and school, his tolerance of his so-called friends Tofu and Olive, as well as his mother - it all just kills me. Some of the dialogue in this book was so clever and so funny I kept having to read it out loud to my husband. Excellent bedtime reading and a great antidote to all the post-apocalyptic stuff I seem to have read and watched lately... Looking forward to “Bertie Plays the Blues”, the next book in the series, which is on my desk.