Alexander McCall Smith Scotland Quotations

With '44 Scotland Street' I found myself having to work out how a daily novel works, and it is completely different to a conventional novel.

Whatever Scotland was, it was not a matriarchy; whereas the United States was a profoundly matriarchal society - and much more feminine than would be suggested by all that male bravado. That was a front, and a misleading one at that; underneath the male swagger lay a passive acceptance of female dominance - a fact not always appreciated by outsiders.