Book review: The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse, by Alexander McCall Smith

I think it was Ian Rankin who claimed that as global politics becomes more turbulent, the world will increasingly find itself in need of Alexander McCall Smith’s heart-warming novels, and he is right. The latest McCall Smith opus, The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse, is a gentle romp through the world of land girls, war-time romance and an exceptional pet – the amusingly-named sheepdog that gives the book its title. The dog is called Peter Woodhouse due to a misunderstanding on the part of sweet but slightly simple-minded Willy, who saw the name – the brand of a removal company – on the side of the dog’s crate and adopted the unlikely moniker. Whether he is called Peter Woodhouse or Fido is largely irrelevant to the plot, yet the name is almost certainly intended to evoke a further layer of cosiness, unconsciously reminding the reader of PG Wodehouse and that sense of carefree, tea-drinking Britishness which suffuses his work.