Portuguese Irregular Verbs

[Jonah the Whale]

Have any of you come across this little gem of a book? It's a novel with a professor of philology as the unlikely bumbling hero. From the blurb:

Professor Doctor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld inhabits the rarefied world of the Institute of Romance Philology at Regensburg...

The writer is Alexander McCall Smith, who is better known for his series about the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, a series which I found absolutley delightful and can heartily recommend. These are light-hearted books with a gentle humour which I think is quite rare this days. Well written, but not heavy going.

Here's a link to a review:
Portuguese Irregular Verbs

Anyone else read this? What did you think?

Jonah.

[Brazilian dude]

Oh, but I don't get the joke: where are the Portuguese irregular verbs?

Brazilian dude

[M. Henri Day]

In the field, under the hedgehog !...

Henri

[Brazilian dude]

I don't know if it was your intention to fool me, but you had me looking for small print under the hedgehog's feet. How shameful of you! You should never do that to a bespectacled person.

Brazilian dude

[M. Henri Day]

Merely an innocuous - at least so was my intention ! - pun on the dear professor's surname ! Please forgive the unseemly levity with which I addressed this portentous matter, BD !...

Henri