In Tiny Tales Alexander McCall Smith explores romance, ambition, kindness and happiness in thirty short stories that range in length from the short to the minuscule. The settings are as diverse as the characters – Scotland, England, Australia, the United States – combining to create a rich and surprising tableau. An Australian pope? A persuasive cosmetic surgeon? The world’s laziest cat. A group of students living together and getting romantically entangled? All human and animal life is here – in miniature.

These stories are inspired and accompanied by thirty magnificent strips, Tiny Tales, created by McCall Smith and illustrated by the brilliant IainMcIntosh – each cartoon a little gem of observation.