The Bearded Queen

When in 1932 young Richard Goodale travels to London to visit his older brother, Rodney, he finds himself swept up by Rodney's eccentric boss into a plot to recover a stolen stamp. Despite his new-found preoccupation with learning to draw, Richard's initiation into burglary instead finds him retreating across two countries in company with a voluptuous poet (never poetess), just one of the surprising characters he meets.