This is a fine middlebrow novel about Julia Polkington, an Edwardian woman who refuses to live by her family's deceitful ways, and earn her own living to repay her gambler father's debts. She works as a cook in Holland, becomes a spy, and smuggles home the secret formula plus a sample of the explosive in her hat. But she still has two feckless old gentlemen to take care and protect from the temptations of the world. It's a love story, it's a story about honour and finding the right path, it' s a merciless satire on snobbishness and arrogance. Very enjoyable, in a quiet way. Republished in 2014 by Victorian Secrets.

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