This ripping yarn by well-known Waiheke resident Nora West is the perfect novel for summer – unless you are an ardent Catholic! Set in 1963, it describes life-changing experiences in the life of a smart, sassy English private schoolgirl, scion to a poultry empire. Alice Lovell is swept up in a tumble of events featuring her glamourous but fragile mother; her extrovert, two-timing father; a Roman holiday; a lusty cardinal and murky backroom business dealings. The plot is pacey and the writing style reminiscent of Agatha Christie or Nancy Mitford – genre authors who, like West, evoke a different era – and, also like West, are unputdownable. Much of the very great charm of this book, and its convincing setting and social landscape, lies in its wry observations of character, and a vivid portrait of upper-middleclass English life in the early 1960s.