Story Calendar

June 2025

A Story for June: The Lost Language of Oysters

The Lost Language of Oysters is the upcoming novel in Alexander’s Professor Dr Von Igelfeld series. Below is an extract from the beginning of the novel, setting the scene for simmering tensions between von Igelfeld and his colleague at the University of Regensburg, Professor Unterholzer. The Lost Language of Oysters Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld sat back in […]

May 2025

A Story for May – The Winds from Further West

The following is an extract from Alexander’s stand-alone novel, The Winds from Further West, which will hit bookshelves in the US at the end of July. The Winds from Further West A month or so after their first date – dinner at a seafood restaurant in Leith – Chrissie announced that she had been looking at […]

April 2025

A Story for April: Manners Count

Manners do count – Conversations in taxis, and the things that are witnessed from taxis, are a fertile source of information for the novelist – or for the amateur student of social trends. A few weeks ago, while travelling in a taxi between the east end of Edinburgh’s Princes Street and the top of Leith […]

March 2025

A Story for March: ‘Cook for Me’

Cook For Me – the first eBook novella in The Perfect Passion Company series They were two young women, lingering over a cup of coffee in a slightly shabby Edinburgh bistro. Both were thirty, or thereabouts; both were dressed, unintentionally, in matching outfits: well-cut jeans and white linen blouses. There were differences, though: Katie had […]

February 2025

A Poem for February: On Clouds Over Mull: A Love Song

February is the month of love, and Alexander McCall Smith’s writing is always filled with musings about the nature of love, both romantic and platonic. In his poetry collection In A Time of Distance, there is a whole section on poems about love. This month we are sharing the poem ‘On Clouds Over Mull: A […]

January 2025

A story for January – An unusual Burns Night from The Perfect Passion Company

The below extract comes from Alexander’s newest series, The Perfect Passion Company. This novel tells the charming story of Katie who runs a matchmaking bureau in Edinburgh’s New Town. This extract follows Katie and her helpful neighbour William with one of their clients George, who has recently started a relationship with Emma. They attend an […]

Latest Stories