The 2½ pillars of wisdom - Alexander McCall Smith

Welcome to the extraordinary world of Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, an unnaturally tall and memorable character whose sublime insouciance is a blend of the cultivated pomposity of Frasier Crane and Inspector Clouseau's hapless gaucherie.

Von Igelfeld inhabits the rarefied world of the Institute of Romance Philology at Regensburg, which he shares with his equally tall and equally ridiculous colleagues, Professors Florianus Prinzel and Detlev Amadeus Unterholzer.

We follow von Igelfeld from his student days, through his search for ancient Irish obscenities to an aching infatuation with a dentist fatale and a Venetian sojourn. Among the Ozark mountains of Arkansas, von Igelfeld is dogged by dachshunds, and aboard a Mediterranean cruise ship he quickly finds himself the star attraction.

The complete exploits of this unlikely adventurer are delightfully captured in The 2½ Pillars of Wisdom.