Rich and slim, the celebrated author Nancy Hawkins takes us in hand and
leads us back to her threadbare years in postwar London, where she
spends her days working for a mad, near-bankrupt publisher ("of very
good books") and her nights dispensing advice at her small South
Kensington rooming house. Everywhere Mrs. Hawkins finds evil: with
aplomb, however, she confidently sets about putting things to order, to
terrible effect.