Chance Developments: Unexpected Love Stories

by Alexander McCall Smith

In this beguiling book, Alexander McCall Smith casts his eye over five chanced-upon photographs from the era of black-and-white photography and imagines the stories behind them. Who were those people, what were their stories, why are they smiling, what made them sad? What emerges are surprising and poignant tales of love and friendship in a variety of settings - an estate in the Highlands of Scotland, a travelling circus in Canada, an Australian gold-mining town, a village in Ireland, and the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. Some will find joy and fulfilment - others would prefer happier endings.Each of them, though, will find love, and that is ultimately what matters.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance, Book Club, Adult Fiction, Scotland

173 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the international phenomenon The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie Series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, and the 44 Scotland Street series. He is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and has served on many national and international bodies concerned with bioethics. He was born in what is now known as Zimbabwe and he was a law professor at the University of Botswana. He lives in Scotland. Visit him online at www.alexandermccallsmith.com, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Reviews

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a beautifully packaged book, the smaller size, the gorgeous red cover with yellow gold writing and the insert in the middle of the black and white photograph of a man and woman. Definitely enticed me to pick this up and read, well that and the fact that though this author seems very popular I had never read anything by him. He takes five photographs, black and white which are at the front of each story and builds a story around the picture.

By alas, I am not the optimal reader for this collection I don't think. While the stories were good, the writing nice, some of the details charming, I found them just okay. An easy and light read.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

McCall Smith could write a story about two flies crawling up a wall. He'd be the perfect storyteller for a child wanting a[n original] story before bed. In this book he takes five orphaned photographs and creates a backstory. I loved the idea and wanted to see how he managed.

The only thing that kept me from total involvement was that when I studied the photographs - one needs to in order to get clues to plausibility - I came up with different stories which clashed a bit with McCall's. When I would resign myself to buckle down and go with his direction, I found myself a little further on again questioning the direction of a thread he wanted to follow and elaborate.

There must be a lesson in this. Perhaps all fiction begins in the way this book does--with a scrap of thought or an image or a theme--but because we don't know where the book comes from we do not try to invent alongside the author. We merely accept what they have given us as a kind of gospel or truth.

When we know the author is inventing from an image, we argue a little in our heads and cannot stop ourselves from wanting to take over the story. It was an interesting exercise for McCall Smith. I am not entirely sure it worked as well for readers.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chance Developments is a collection of five short stories by popular British author, Alexander McCall Smith. Who of us doesn’t enjoy a bit of people watching on occasion? To watch strangers and imagine what their story might be? This book is Alexander McCall Smith’s version of people watching: five old black-and-white photographs, about which nothing is known, are the inspiration for these stories. McCall Smith creates a story about the subjects of the photographs, making them ordinary people in ordinary, or sometimes not-so-ordinary, situations.

Sister Flora’s First Day of Freedom: a nun in Scotland, the recipient of a legacy, leaves the convent, her home of ten years, with a specific goal in mind.
Angels in Italy: an artist who regrets his behaviour as a young man learns something surprising when reunited with a friend from his youth.
Dear Ventriloquist: a young circus performer’s fortune-telling proves to be unexpectedly accurate.
The Woman with the Beautiful Car: a young man acts in an uncharacteristic way to gain the attention of a lady.
He Wanted to Believe in Tenderness: an old man counts his blessings despite a less-than-ideal life.

Across a range of diverse settings, McCall Smith gives the reader stories with happiness, heartache, joy and sorrow; some will produce a lump in the throat, others, a smile, a chuckle or a laugh. Five unexpected love stories that will delight McCall Smith fans.

[Melora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five short stores involving romantic love. In his introductory “author's note,” the author explains that he asked his editor ”if he might find me a selection of black-and-white photographs of people from the past so that I could imagine the stories behind the images.” I found the character in the first story so unappealing that I thought the book would be a bust, but the rest of them were better. The story based on the cover photo, “Dear Ventriloquist,” was my favorite but they all, even the first story, have interest and charm.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chance Developments is a collection of five short stories by popular British author, Alexander McCall Smith. The audio version is narrated by David Rintoul. Who of us doesn’t enjoy a bit of people watching on occasion? To watch strangers and imagine what their story might be? This book is Alexander McCall Smith’s version of people watching: five old black-and-white photographs, about which nothing is known, are the inspiration for these stories. McCall Smith creates a story about the subjects of the photographs, making them ordinary people in ordinary, or sometimes not-so-ordinary, situations.

Sister Flora’s First Day of Freedom: a nun in Scotland, the recipient of a legacy, leaves the convent, her home of ten years, with a specific goal in mind.
Angels in Italy: an artist who regrets his behaviour as a young man learns something surprising when reunited with a friend from his youth.
Dear Ventriloquist: a young circus performer’s fortune-telling proves to be unexpectedly accurate.
The Woman with the Beautiful Car: a young man acts in an uncharacteristic way to gain the attention of a lady.
He Wanted to Believe in Tenderness: an old man counts his blessings despite a less-than-ideal life.

Across a range of diverse settings, McCall Smith gives the reader stories with happiness, heartache, joy and sorrow; some will produce a lump in the throat, others, a smile, a chuckle or a laugh. Five unexpected love stories that will delight McCall Smith fans.

[Nat K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightful vignettes are presented to us, based around a black & white photo (origin unknown) featured at the beginning of each chapter. 5 stories for 5 photos. Alexander McAll Smith weaves his magic, by telling a story about the people in the photos.

The standout story for me was ”Sister Flora’s First Day of Freedom”, which really captivated me.

Ah, new beginnings to tie in with the new year.

”Would it be better to get a flat before a husband, or get a husband first and then a flat?”

”She would not seek to disguise the fact that she had been a nun; indeed, in the circles in which she was planning to move, such a past might even seem exotic, might be an advantage. This is Flora – she was a nun, would you believe it, yes a nun! It would be like having served in the Foreign Legion or having lived somewhere remote and romantic”

Utterly charming.

[Elite Group · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most perfect book!

I have been an avid follower of Alexander McCall Smith’s writing for well over twenty years and when I’m stressed, or feeling down, I can pick up one of his books and the gentle rhythm of the words quickly restores my soul.

However, this book has done something more for me. It’s inspired and lit a flame deep inside me to look at life in a different way. By taking old photographs and writing beautiful stories around them has given me a new vision to dig out old photos of my family and friends and really look at them and try to understand what message the photos may give me of that moment captured in their lives.

There’s only one way I can thank Alexander McCall Smith for writing this gem is to say that when I first opened the book and started browsing through it, I kept thinking about chocolate! That feeling of pure unadulterated pleasure that a piece of my favourite chocolate gives me when it starts melting in my mouth.

Thank you Alexander. Thank you for having the gift and insight into writing possibly one of your best books, by taking some random photographs and writing a story about them.

Treebeard

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

[Krista · Rating 2 out of 5]

In Chance Developments, Alexander McCall Smith has taken five of what he calls “orphaned photographs” – old black and white pictures of people that have survived without any information about their subjects – and based on the photos alone, has imagined a love story around each one. Only with the first story (Sister Flora's First Day of Freedom, which is prefaced with the photo of a woman standing in a shaft of light in a train station) does McCall Smith make a metaphorical connection between the photo and his character (which is nearly ruined when, in the moment, Flora is indeed very aware of the shaft of light and its effect upon her), but in the next four stories, the photos themselves are present in the narratives (in two stories, characters are discussing the people in the photos, in the other two, the reader is present as the photos are taken), and this literal treatment is fairly typical of McCall Smith's unsubtle writing; these stories are not particularly intelligent or interesting; they are certainly not art. This is very light reading, not to my taste, but I have no doubt that McCall Smith's regular readers – of which they are legion – will be satisfied by what they find here.

The story Dear Ventriloquist is illustrative of my complaint of literalism. My edition of this book begins with a special “Author's Note to Canadian Readers”, in which McCall Smith explains that he has family ties to Canada and spends much time here. As a result, he had always wanted to set a story in Canada, and when he found an old photo with a man in a Stetson and a vaguely bouldery background, he had found his inspiration. In this photo, the man is kind of sitting on the lap of a woman in Edwardian dress (it looks to me like he's sitting on a boulder with his legs half-draped over her lap, but it's written that he is sitting on it), and if the title of the story hasn't clued you into the story's content, I'll fill it in here: the pair are performers in a circus, and when the woman's trailer burns down – with her ventriloquist's dummy inside – the man (a lion tamer) volunteers to act as the prop in her new act. Hilarious! This lion tamer has only one big cat – William Lion Mackenzie King – and that's such a highly clever play on the name of the contemporaneous Prime Minister of Canada at the time – William Lyon Mackenzie King – that the lion tamer needs to spell out the joke for Eddie (who is actually the protagonist of this story; the photographer rather than the photographed). It is explained to us that Eddie's father is a Quebecker, and when the boy had to correct his father's English once (explaining that “you don't know nothing” is a double negative), Eddie followed that up with “I know it's difficult for you – being French and all...” But that is the only instance of Eddie's father not speaking properly British (as a matter of fact, it annoyed me highly that everyone from this Quebecker to an Aussie to Scotch and Irishmen over the course of these stories would use the fussy phrase “That's as may be”; that struck me as implausible every time I read it). This story could have been set anywhere, so what was the point of stressing its Canadianness? The literal interpretation of the photograph simply shows no art or subtlety; even the love story was predictable.

There was one passage in the above story that might have gotten interesting: Eddie (as a conjurer and fortune teller in the circus) was telling the lion tamer that he knew for a fact that the Prime Minister routinely sought the advice of a fortune teller in Kingston. The lion tamer was taken aback by that, and though he repeated it to the ventriloquist, it came to nothing; what might have added some juice to this plot was just an interesting factoid; and one that all Canadians know anyway. I have the same kind of complaint about the final story, He Wanted to Believe in Tenderness. This story is set in Australia, and as the inspiration photograph shows a man and woman in militaryish garb, McCall Smith propels the action towards the man joining the army at the dawn of WWII. Again, something interesting might have happened: David was shown writing letters to the girl he left behind from his boring deployment in the Pacific when their base was suddenly attacked by the Japanese and he was taken prisoner. But instead of actually showing something interesting like a Japanese POW Camp, McCall Smith jumps ahead to David in a military hospital years later, where he refuses to let anyone see him because he has wasted away to skin and bones. That's so frivolous as to be nearly insulting, and even though I understand that McCall Smith's intention was to focus on the love stories inspired by these photos, the love story that follows this scene was so implausible as to be nearly insulting. (And I have to admit that I'm confused by the love story too: Before the war, David had fallen in love with a Jewish woman who worried that her father would disown her if she married outside her religion. Yet after the war, in the aftermath of the Holocaust when in my understanding their community would have become closer and more interested in preserving what was left of the bloodlines, this Jewish woman was more inclined to abandon her family for David's love. What was McCall Smith's inspiration for adding this unnecessary Jewish angle?)

I am tempted to include passages of the uninspired prose, but as I am working from an advanced reading copy, that's not quite done. This was a very quick, unsatisfying for me, read, but I don't regret spending a couple of hours with it; if only to confirm that I am not a fan of Mr McCall Smith.

[South Buncombe Library]

We have a little container on the circulation desk at the library with photos that have been found in books. Patrons like looking through them, and every once in a while a photo makes its way back to its owner. To me, reading these stories is just like looking through the stack: there are worse things to do while you wait but nothing much is likely to come of it. -Sarah

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

"We carry with us the clothes of childhood, don't we? We keep them long after they have ceased to fit." Why I love reading Alexander McCall Smith.

[Mary Lins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dear reader, have you heard of or read, Ransom Riggs', "Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children" series wherein Riggs has built phantasmagorical "horror" stories from found/strange photographs? Well, Alexander McCall Smith's new novel, "Chance Developments" is NOT like that! Though it does share the conceit of writing stories around found photographs, for Smith, however, these photographs all contain stories of love.

"Love can occur in so many ways, if we let it."

With his trademark flowing and simple (in the best way) prose, Smith uses his prodigious story-telling talent to build five short stories based on unidentified photographs. From a story of a former nun's search for love, to a famous author's youthful indiscretion, a fortune teller, and finally to a young Australian soldier going off to war and unspeakable trauma. As always, Smith treats his characters with tender kindness, and all of Smith's known passions are accounted for in these lovely stories: Scotland, art, and poetry.

In past reviews, I've referred to Smith's novels (in no way disparagingly), as "palate cleaners". They are among my go-to comfort stories (also authors Betty Smith and Mauve Binchy) when I want to be both entertained and feel nostalgic. "Chance developments" is a stand-alone collection of stories, not part of one of Smith's many series, and it is a great way to sample his style and be introduced to his characters. New readers of Smith, as well as we old stalwarts, will enjoy this collection. And I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the start of a series!

[Paula Dembeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

McCall Smith is a talented and prolific writer who has over one hundred books to his name, many of which I have read. Although I am not a fan of the short story genre, I was completely won over by this small charming book of stories based on old abandoned early twentieth century photographs he found while researching another project. They are based on the possibility of love in one form or another, a longed for state many imagine and hope for in their lives.

McCall Smith has chosen six from his stack of black and white photos and imagined a story behind them. Much as we wonder about the people we watch every day as we pass them on the street, wait at the train station or eat at a restaurant, McCall Smith asks who the people in the photograph are and what has made them joyful or sad. He spins his various tales from a variety of locations, from the Highlands of Scotland to the Tuscan hills and across continents. McCall Smith has the imagination to create an entire life story from a photograph, not just create a narrative from the single moment captured on film. Each of the stories is very different, filled with fully fleshed characters easily imagined by the reader.

In the first story ”Sister Flora’s First Day of Freedom”, we meet a thirty-two year old woman who has spent ten years as a teaching nun in a convent. She has come to realize that living a sequestered life is not the way she wants to spend her remaining days and has decided to leave the order. She has not lost her faith, she has just found it increasingly impossible to continue to live a life based on a doctrinaire faith to which she is not fully committed. She believes she can still find God without Father Sullivan or the bishop telling her what she can think or do and she intends to continue looking for God in the way she herself chooses. A sudden unexpected inheritance from an Uncle facilitates her decision and she goes to live with an Aunt. McCall Smith’s story emerges from the most compelling photograph in the collection. In it we see a young woman emerging from the train station in Edinburgh, passing under a shaft of light from the glass roof and heading to Princes Street for a shopping trip and lunch in town. The photography tellingly marks her emergence from a closed life to the possibilities of another future as she begins a new life. She has decided she wants a husband and is out to get one.

The second story, “Angels in Italy” takes place in southern Tuscany where an older woman holds a picture of herself as a young girl. In the photograph, she clings to the reins of a pony on which another girl is seated. Beside them is a rather unhappy younger boy on a tricycle. The older woman with the photograph is talking to a gentleman who is writing an article for a magazine, doing a profile on the boy on the bike, a boy who later became a famous painter. The older woman tells the story of her complicated relationship with the painter, how their lives came together when they were young, were forced apart by circumstance and the edicts of their families, but were reunited in later years. The story shows how two people who were meant to be together were finally able to achieve what they had long hoped for.

The third story “Dear Ventriloquist”, takes place in Canada where the reader meets Eddie, a young man living at home who enjoys conjuring and magic tricks. His parents are anxious for him to get a proper job, leave home and make a living. Eddie joins a traveling circus, a place where his talents are recognized and appreciated. There he meets Frank, a man known as the human cannonball and Ruby, a ventriloquist who works with a man in a box called Harold. When a fire destroys the ventriloquist’s puppet, Eddie cleverly suggests they replace their act with another, using a human perched on the lap of the performer to replace Harold in the box. The idea proves successful and a romance between the ventriloquist and the human puppet results, leaving Eddie wistful and alone. He is glad to see Ruby happy, but he had feelings for her and wanted to be with her himself.

The next story “The Woman in the Beautiful Car” takes place in Ireland where a young man, a teacher at a school in a nearby village, is mulling over his dull life and hoping for a different future. He notices a beautiful young woman who regularly drives by in a car and longs to meet her. He creates that opportunity by stealthily placing tacks on the road, causing the tires on her car to blow a flat and forcing her to stop. He then courteously offers to change the tire and begins a relationship which helps him embark on a more fulfilling life.

The fifth and final story “He Wanted to Believe in Tenderness” takes place in Australia and is the longest in the collection. The photo shows David, a young man sitting on the deck of a boat with a young woman at his side. It is wartime and he is about to ship out to Malaya and leave Hannah, his newfound love behind. Hannah has promised to wait for him. After a terrible period in a prisoner of war camp in Japan, David returns home and takes months to recover physically and mentally from his war experience. Hannah helps care for him but their relationship does not stand the test of time and she leaves him for another. The story tells how the couple finds, loses and regains love, able to spend their final years together.

McCall Smith writes about a generous caring world rather than one locked in fear, despair and violence. Politics rarely enters his writing. Everything usually turns out well, although not always the way some of the characters had hoped. In that way although readable, charming and positive, his books may not suit everyone and his critics often accuse him of seeing the world through rose colored lenses. But he rejects that criticism and responds, saying he knows there is sadness in the world but has chosen to respond to it in a positive way, looking for happiness rather than just thinking of the world as an unhappy weary place. Others, he says, can write about that world, but he has chosen the alternate route, one with which he is more comfortable.

An excellent, enjoyable and light read.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A delightful audiobook of short stories. Each short story was inspired by a Black & White photo of uncertain origins so I decided to borrow the paperback from the library to see the photos. By the time the paperback got to me, I'd forgotten some of the stories but from the ones I could remember it seemed like an obscure link between short story and photo. Worth listening to, and chasing up the paperback if you enjoy short stories but I found that most of the stories didn't really stay with me for long and I could barely recall them a fortnight later. Enjoyed it but ultimately not memorable.

[Kate Yates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unexpectedly good! I don't know if it is because I can connect more easily to a story if there is a visual clue but I always seem to enjoy these sorts of stories.

[Viana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories I liked a lot, others not so much. Overall I like the concept of taking an old photo and imagining a story to go along with it.

[Mercedes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stories written after looking at five old photographs of anonymous people - all written with the characteristic wit and whimsy with roundly developed characters. The stories were comforting and moving, a pure delight. Listen to as an audio book and the narrator is exceptional.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet and delightful afternoon read in my hammock. :)

[Scottsdale Public Library]

I just finished a very unusual book. It is called Chance Developments by Alexander McCall Smith. He was asked to write an introduction to "orphaned" photographs----old black and white pictures that had no clear provenance. Thus, he took 5 of those photographs, and put names and places to them. All of the 5 short stories are different in their location and time. The photos are an actual part of the book.

ALL of the stories are uniquely told, and very interesting. The style is very endearing in that you have an attachment to the characters. Since Book Clubs are usually fiction, or biographical, I wonder if a Book Club would enjoy the discussion of the material in this book. I thoroughly enjoyed ALL of the stories. -Bob K.

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charming is the best word that comes to mind although I'm sure there are better words to describe this beautiful little hard bound book presented like an old fashioned photo album complete with what appear to be genuine photos. The accompanying short stories are about everyday life; no thrilling mysteries, murders or over-the-top tales; just well told stories; thoroughly enjoyed.

[Laura Bang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five short stories inspired by five random photographs. Enjoyable for a quick read and it's interesting to see what stories McCall Smith imagines based on a single photo.

[Owen Townend · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is nice every once in a while to read a short story collection where happy endings are prevalent. While I am not one to usually indulge in such peaceful nostalgia, it turned out to be a fine way of approaching the writing of Alexander McCall Smith for the first time.

Chance Developments is a collection of five stories, each drawn from an 'orphaned' photograph from long ago. Smith not only successfully writes a sweet and credible narrative for the real people captured in the photogenic moment, he develops fully-fledged fictional life stories for them. While this is indeed an impressive feat, there were times where I felt that his ambition was diluted by the form. After all, short stories are only ever meant to be snapshots of a life. Only a couple of the tales really suffered from this, flicking through whole generations in a matter of pages.

Regardless I cannot really fault such gentle well-written love stories. Smith's talent for evoking quiet, steady interpersonal relationships endeared me even as I became fed up of all the zooming ahead. Not only this, you have to congratulate the writer for such a unique act of remembering men and women who may now only exist in unattributed pictures.

I recommend Chance Developments to fans of Smith (probably those more inclined towards the '44 Scotland Street' novels than 'The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency') and historical photography enthusiasts.

Notable Stories

• Sister Flora’s First Day of Freedom – a lovely account of a shy religious woman finally allowing herself to enter society.

• Dear Ventriloquist – arguably the tale with the most ambiguously grim ending, I loved the Circus angle it took.

[Stephen Gallup · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed five of Professor McCall Smith's novels before finding my way to this one, and while those others were all fine and great fun Chance Developments is absolutely wonderful.

In a short intro, the author explains he'd been given several old photographs of unknown people from bygone days and had taken on the challenge of concocting stories—not about the actual people but imagined backstories that could have resulted in poses such as the following:



These are billed as love stories, and the endings are sweet or at worst bittersweet. Without going into detail about them, I'll just say in my view they're all utterly charming. I'm further intrigued by the idea of extrapolating from just an image to create a complete story. It reminds me of an acting exercise from my days in community theatre.

This one came to me as an audiobook from the library, but in that format I missed seeing the photos. Therefore, I bought a printed copy to keep, and while I was at it I found another copy (autographed) to give as a Christmas present.

[Sanhita · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unusual but interesting concept, which only a master story-teller like McCall Smith can pick up and pull it off successfully. Cleverly named too.
It's about a set of photographs of unknown and long lost/forgotten people. Nothing is known where there clicked, who were the people and how these photos landed up where they are. But McCall Smith picks up a handful of them and imagines and spins a story around each of them. Very interesting concept and some of them are very good stories. An enjoyable read.

[Mila · Rating 5 out of 5]

This reminds me of a writing assignment I was given in high school which was to write a poem about a photograph. In Smith's case, take a look at five old black-and-white photographs and build short stories around them. I agree with "The Scotsman" that Smith is: "A virtuoso storyteller whose tales from the human heart remain very definitely on track."

I love the way inserts his views in the words of the characters and I was looking for those tidbits while reading the book. This is my favourite:

"The Italians seem to have been happy in spite of religion." "Remember that Catholicism is only marginally about guilt. For the rest it's cheerfully pagan - plaster saints, miracles, superstition, feast days. People love ceremony, and there's bags of ceremony and dressing up in Catholicism."

[Toast · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charming if a little 'O' level cheat. The pictures form the pretext for the story - but we'll forgive AMcS anything because the stories are wonderful. He is a truely fabulous story teller.
Toast
PS My copy has a wonderful cover - drawn with colour.

[Liz V. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author note gives the impetus for the book as the author's introduction for a museum collection of "orphan picture." With a selection in hand, the author has woven stories around pictures of unknown people, in unknown circumstances. Fun but short stories are not amongst my favorites.

[Vida · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 short stories inspired by photographs of people he didn’t know. Each one different and matching up with the photo. McCall Smith writes his stories as if he knew each one intimately. Loved this as I have loved other stories written by him.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of charming, gentle, sometimes surprising, love stories. Immensely refreshing.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very sweet but not cloying stories of love and relationships. Should appeal to all McCall Smith fans. The audiobook uses different actors for each tale, which helps keep them apart nicely.

[lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 short stories by Alexander McCall Smith - how can you go wrong? I’m generally not a short story reader but in desperation picked this up and loved every single minute of it. One is cooked and intrigued in the very first page.