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The key to contentment in the Scottish climate is the right attitude to rain – just as in life the key to happiness lies in making the best of what you have.
Bruised in love by her faithless Irish husband, Isabel Dalhousie is a connoisseur of intimate moral issues: she edits a philosophical journal and spends a great deal of her time considering how to improve the lives of those around her. There is her housekeeper Grace, whose future she must secure; her niece Cat, who is embarking on a new relationship with a dubious workaholic mummy’s boy; and even an American couple newly arrived in Edinburgh on a tour. And then there is Jamie, Cat’s ex-boyfriend, a handsome, gifted musician fourteen years Isabel’s junior, with whom she is slowly and hopelessly falling in love.
Intensely thoughtful and consistently entertaining, THE RIGHT ATTITUDE TO RAIN is shot through with compassion and unassuming intelligence.
Bruised in love by her faithless Irish husband, Isabel Dalhousie is a connoisseur of intimate moral issues: she edits a philosophical journal and spends a great deal of her time considering how to improve the lives of those around her. There is her housekeeper Grace, whose future she must secure; her niece Cat, who is embarking on a new relationship with a dubious workaholic mummy’s boy; and even an American couple newly arrived in Edinburgh on a tour. And then there is Jamie, Cat’s ex-boyfriend, a handsome, gifted musician fourteen years Isabel’s junior, with whom she is slowly and hopelessly falling in love.
Intensely thoughtful and consistently entertaining, THE RIGHT ATTITUDE TO RAIN is shot through with compassion and unassuming intelligence.
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Reviews
** 'Delightful ... McCall Smith is a writer who celebrates kindness, in short supply in the world today
** 'Isabel is an appealing character, always trying to work out the right thing to do, and McCall Smith presents her with a series of dilemmas. One is personal, the ethics of beginning an affair with a younger man who used to be her niece's boyfriend, and
Brimming with discreet charm
Like [Barbara] Pym, McCall Smith believes that the small stuff in life matters
