Following on from the huge success of the 44 Scotland Street series, Alexander McCall Smith has ‘moved house’ to a crumbling four-storey mansion in Pimlico – Corduroy Mansions. It is inhabited by a glorious assortment of characters: among them, Oedipus Snark, the first ever nasty Lib Dem MP, who is so detestable his own mother, Berthea, is writing an unauthorised biography about him; and one small vegetarian dog, Freddie de la Hay, who has the ability to fasten his own seatbelt.

(Although Corduroy Mansions is a fictional name, the address is now registered by the Post Office.)