At a local wedding, an old friend tells Precious Ramotswe that her daughter has inexplicably cut her off. Another friend has lost all her money and fallen for a charismatic preacher. Unravelling these conundrums will require all Ramotswe’s ingenuity and moral sense.

While Precious Ramotswe toys with entering local politics, the latest case for the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency – involving a ruthless property developer’s plans for a ‘Big Fun Hotel’ – falls to the Agency’s mechanic. When danger looms over his investigation, Precious abandons politics to rescue Charlie.

Alexander McCall Smith’s anthology of Scottish poems is arranged in eight parts, on themes including love and marriage, islands, and war, conflict and loss, with poets spanning the centuries, from William Dunbar in the 15th, to Hugh MacDiarmid and Kathleen Raine in the 20th.

The world’s longest-running serial novel continues apace: starting with Pat Macgregor’s meeting with her ex-boyfriend and the colossal embarrassment that followed, here are further adventures of Stuart and Irene, young Bertie, the Duke of Johannesburg and resident anthropologist Domenica Lordie (née MacDonald).

Valerie, a wartime Land Girl, meets and falls in love with an American pilot; meanwhile, her cousin has rescued a mistreated border collie named Peter Woodhouse. Together, Val, Mike and Peter Woodhouse do their bit for love, the war and international relations.

From five old photographs, McCall Smith conjures five beguiling stories of love and friendship in very different settings: the Scottish Highlands, a travelling circus in Canada, an Australian gold-mining town, an Irish village and Edinburgh.

While Precious Ramotswe toys with entering local politics, the latest case for the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency – involving a ruthless property developer’s plans for a ‘Big Fun Hotel’ – falls to the Agency’s mechanic. When danger looms over his investigation, Precious abandons politics to rescue Charlie.

In a fresh approach to Scotland’s past, five Scottish writers – Alexander McCall Smith, Alistair Moffat, James Robertson, James Crawford and the poet Kathleen Jamie – explore 25 buildings, or remains of buildings, across the country. Starting at Geldie Burn in the Cairngorms with its traces of prehistoric habitations, they visit Iona’s ancient abbey, medieval castles, and modern buildings ranging from the Glasgow School of Art to Sullom Voe oil terminal – structures whose stories together create a new narrative of Scottish history.

Summer in Edinburgh, and Isabel Dalhousie is caught between her work editing a philosophy journal and the demands of her niece, Cat. But soon her instinct to help others puts her in real danger…

Distracted by a new baby, philosophical sleuth Isabel Dalhousie is helping out at her niece’s deli. She soon finds herself embroiled in customers’ problems, not least the need to uncover the true identity of the enigmatic Tony MacUspaig.

‘The world’s longest running serial novel’ continues, with young Bertie Pollock’s terrible mother back from the Middle East. Life was easy in her absence, now it’s no fun: there are extra classes after school – yoga, Italian and saxophone – and his father looks to be enamoured of another woman.

This Alexander McCall Smith double bill introduces two of his hugely popular series. In The Double Comfort Safari Club, we rejoin Precious Ramotswe in Botswana and another case for The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Friends, Lovers, Chocolate is the second book in The Sunday Philosophy Club series and the second risky investigation for the Edinburgh philosopher Isabel Dalhousie. The two books are shrink-wrapped together.

In the continuing saga of 44 Scotland Street, Elspeth and Matthew worry over the order in which their triplets arrived; while Bertie Pollock, fed up with his father’s secret society and his mother’s neuroses, puts himself up for adoption on eBay.

In this tenth book in McCall Smith's hugely popular 44 Scotland Street series, Bertie Pollock is now seven years old and making the most of his freedom in Edinburgh while Irene, his terrible mother, is in the Gulf States – in a Bedouin harem.