A lovely group of stories.Each one was a wonderful read.Based on newspaper photographs the author weave romantic tales. #netgalley#knopfdoubleday

A selection of short stories based on a selection of old photographs:
These stories are very interesting. They don’t always go the way you might expect them too.
Somehow they remind me of exercises I undertake within a creative writing group- really interesting- would liked to have known more!

Pianos and Flowers is a collection of short stories by Alexander McCall Smith of No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency fame. I love those stories and was excited to try out this short story collection.

Smith wrote each story based on a different old picture that he knew nothing about. He just looked at the picture and created a whole background story of the people in the scene. I thought that premise was quite clever and I was not at all disappointed. They are all black and white pictures (in the front of each story) and I could totally believe that each one happened just by looking at the picture before and after reading the story.

This is a charming collection of fourteen short stories by the author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. It did not disappoint!

I picked this book up because I love the author and how she writes. These short stories taking an old photograph and making a story was excellent. I read it in one sitting.
The writing was quality and it was so worth a read.
If you want to immerse yourself in a few excellent short stories this is the book for you
Thank you net galley for an advance copy for an honest review.

4.5★s
Pianos and Flowers: Brief Encounters Of The Romantic Kind is a collection of short stories by British author, Alexander McCall Smith. He was offered access to the photographic archives of The Sunday Times and chose fourteen photographs about which to write accompanying stories. Six of the stories have been published earlier; the remainder are new.

In his inimitable fashion, McCall Smith selects some element of the photograph around which to build a wonderful story. Sometimes they are amusing, sometimes moving or poignant. Generally, a backstory is provided of both before and after the photograph, mostly not carrying equal weight. And what an imagination this man has!

Pianos and Flowers focuses on a row of figures on a lawn and describes the childhood of four British ex-pat siblings in Penang, and their subsequent return to Britain with their mother while their father remained abroad.

I’d Cry Buckets takes a scene of two young men crossing a burn with a freshly-shot stag laden on horseback and describes their discussion at the cusp of their entry into adult lives: an unnecessary confession is made.

Sphinx is one of the best of these stories, published previously and definitely worth rereading. After working in a Glasgow bank, twenty-six-year-old Margaret moves to London and a better job. It’s the 1930s and her landlady is suggesting she make an effort to find a husband, but Margaret is sure she will know the right man when she meets him. And she does. But things go a little amiss: is she going to end up marrying the not-quite-right man?

Maternal Designs: a besuited man strides away from a partially collapsed building. We are told he is an architect whose mother really wanted him to become a doctor, but eventually embraced his chosen profession, with more enthusiasm than he realised.

The Dwarf Tale-Teller of the Romanian Roms: from a Romny camp scene, McCallSmith conjures up an indignant anthropologist.

Duty draws a tale of motherless twin sisters from a scene of two women, twins who eventually wed – a delightful twist in the tail.

Iron Jelloids: from a photo of a tall woman and a short man on a tram, McCall Smith invokes the photo shoot of an advertisement for an iron supplement with miraculous effects.

Zeugma: a smiling woman seated on the crossbar of a bicycle ridden by a man becomes a linguistics professor giving a librarian a lift to work.

Urchins: a group of urchins on a street are given likely stories of deprivation and violence, but also heroism and moments fun and love.

St John’s Wort: a woman at a well in front of a country cottage becomes the house of a retired tractor mechanic who worries so incessantly about the global threat that it drives him to desperate measures. But a neighbour suggests a remedy.

Blackmail: a foggy street scene has two sweepers discussing their lot and the circumstances that led to their downfall. But one relates certain compensations of their job.

Pogo Sticks and Man with Bicycle: as young men enjoy their pogo sticks, certain professors, on the cusp of a momentous discovery, observe.

La Plage: a winter-clad couple strolls by a beach. While his wife gossips about family matters, the husband muses on bad investments and bathing machines and one’s path in life.

While by no means are these all stories of romantic encounters, many are delightful, and some are laugh-out-loud funny. McCall Smith’s literary version of people-watching is a treat.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday