As always, I can't wait (but I guess I'll have to) for more musings and little exploits from the crew at 44 Scotland Street. Nicola Pollock ponders the obligation to tolerate those we dislike, perhaps intensely, and compares Irene Pollock to Agrippina, mother of Nero. He wore the shoes to his father’s funeral, and as he and farming neighbours carried him to his final rest, a tear fell from Angus’s eye onto the cap of one of the shoes. And, I keep my phone nearby so that I can look up words I've never seen before as well as historical and geographical facts that I either had forgotten or never knew. He's living his best life in Edinburgh with his mother away in Aberdeen until Irene announces she wants him there for three months and Nicola thinks it will become permanent.

There are tribulations as well as celebrations in this the next instalment in the 44 Scotland Street series. I never want to say too much for fear of giving away any spoilers, but suffice it to say that everything I've ever wanted to have happen for some of my most-loved and most-despised characters happened in this book.

Another lovely poem from Angus, someone new in Big Lou's life, adventures for Bertie and Ranald, and shocking comeuppance for Bruce. She bemoans how independent privately-funded scholars suffer the condescension of academics, and Angus muses on the alter-ego endowed on him by the bureaucracy. It’s ‘nice’ and ‘comfortable’ to be back, of course, but as noted with the last few volumes the series seems to have lost its way a little.

Young Bertie's friends are up to their usual antics (and tell poor Bertie how dreadfully cold Aberdeen is, way up "north with its polar bears). Angus had never fallen for that particular attempt to sugar the pill of local deindustrialisation and the deskilling that went with it. At the Edinburgh College of Art at the time, shoes were being worn, of course, but these shoes were concepts or statements, rather than shoes simpliciter.

Written with wit and wisdom and containing a gentle, thought-provoking philosophy about life, the ability to change, love, friendship, community, art, admitting one's defects, and taking control. His works have been translated into more than forty languages and have been best sellers throughout the world…. Angus compares conceptual art to the emperor’s new clothes, there is a marriage proposal, Highland Games are organised for the Drummond Street Gardens and, as always, Angus bestows a poem on the gathered company.