Available Formats
Paperback, New in Paperback
Published: 1st May 2023
Paperback, Reissue
Published: 12th September 2025
Pianos and Flowers: Brief Encounters of the Romantic Kind
By (Author) Alexander McCall Smith
Birlinn General
Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited
12th September 2025
4th June 2026
Reissue
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Short stories
Romantic comedies
Contemporary lifestyle fiction
Paperback
192
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 20mm
In Pianos and Flowers we are invited to glimpse a world long departed. In these stories, inspired by long-lost photographs, the lives of the people in the frame are imagined and then explored, layer by layer.
Three sisters brought up in Penang, caught in the tide of war.
A group of small boys in a Glasgow slum their childhood blighted by poverty, their adult lives taking very different paths.
A young woman's search for love in the unlikely realm of Egyptian antiquities.
And through all of these photographs, and all of these stories, there runs the same refrain: the possibilities of love, of friendship, of happiness lie before us.
'McCall Smiths expert handling of conflict and rich imagination make this one his fans will enjoy'
* Publisher's Weekly *'The beloved author invites us to glimpse a world long departed... from Glasgow slums to Egyptian relics, love, friendship and happiness are the central themes'
* Scots Magazine *'A picture paints a thousand words ... this book demonstrates the imagination and skill of McCall Smith to be able to create personal stories from something as simple as a photograph'
* Dundee Courier, Scottish Book of the Week *'A delightful compendium of short stories'
* Edinburgh Life *Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the highly successful No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, which has sold over twenty-five million copies. Since then he has devoted his time to the writing of fiction and has seen his various series of books translated into over forty-six languages and become bestsellers throughout the world.