''A Jilly Cooper heroine in a John le Carr-orld'' (Libby Purves, TLS); a beguiling comic memoir about a young woman who discovers her father is a spy (and was the model for John le Carr- George Smiley) and goes to work as a secretary in 1950s MI5Much to her surprise, eighteen-year-old Lottie has just found out that her aloof, rather unexciting father is a spy. And now he-s decreed that she must make herself useful and get a Proper Job - so she-s packed off to MI5 herself, trussed up in a dreary suit. Luckily her delightful colleague Arabella is on hand to enliven the torments of typing and decode the enigmas of office life. But as Lottie-s home fills with actors doubling as spies, and Arabella-s mother is besieged with mysterious telephone calls, the girls start to feel well and truly spooked- A hilarious true story, and a unique window into 1950s Britain - where Russian agents infiltrate the highest echelons, where debutantes are typists and where Englishness is both a n
