'That's a polite way of putting it,' said Isabel. He also said that you had a reputation for discretely looking into things.' And he said that you were, well, who you are. To unravel this Mystery of the total stranger's transplanted Tell-tale Heart!ĮXCERPT: 'I asked our mutual friend Peter Stevenson about you,' Ian continued. Oh I have become Comfortably Numb!)īut (if I can get to the point) upon finishing its taxiing down the runway, our sleek silver aircraft was greeted on the tarmac by a lone piper - in Full Scottish Regalia - and we were accompanied by him into the airport, under bright sunny skies, a welcome fit for kings!īut Isabel's Edinburgh knows no such halcyon weather from day to day.Īs Isabel, in turn, must wear her dour thinking cap now. My hands have turned into two lead balloons, (Let's now hear Pink Floyd's happy memories: Those of you who remember the Golden Age of Air Travel fondly remember that international flights back then had distinct perks: in this case, an Open Bar for its six hour duration! In 1991 I travelled with my brother from Mirabel Airport in Montreal to Troon in Glasgow. There are stranger things in Heaven and Edinburgh, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophy! And this one is no exception.įor here, Smith attempts to demonstrate in concrete terms how the heart (in this case the transplanted physical heart) knows things by which the everyday sleuthing mind is Baffled. Each one has its discrete delights, and is most certainly NOT a walk on the wild side.Īnd the Isabel books are a mystery series - like an intellectual's Rubick's Cube.
His books are the admitted sans pareil of modern Brit Cozy Mysteries.
That's the onward march of a more discreet and cultured people into a purer kinda sophistication - and that, by the way, is what the late Sir Kenneth Clark called civilization!Īnd that urbane approach to mind and matter is the soul of Alexander McCall Smith.
But Old French would frame its meaning by a feeling bordering on the voluptuous. When used as a noun, une delicatesse now means something delightfully dainty. The Isabel Dalhousie series is what my wife would call a delicatesse! But isn't it funny how a European word's meaning morphs with the usage? THE HEART HAS ITS REASONS OF WHICH OUR INTELLECT HAS NO INKLING!
0 kommentar(er)
