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Will the government order today’s police to arrest the lovely rag-doll Sophie for telling truths which will no doubt offended our anti-free-speech oppressors? Will she perhaps – like Jermiah – be put in the stocks by the Upper Benjamin Gate and beaten or thrown down a well and have stones piled on...

This tale although fiction, touches on lawlessness and the slide into chaos which Britain is facing; an anarchy to which most in authority seem either indifferent or even willing to encourage.

Sophie discovers that funds are being used by the Civil Service to promote politically biased campaigns. Their reaction to this exposure is ruthless, ending with the murder of her MI5 boss in circumstances reminiscent of those surrounding Dr David Kelly’s death some twenty years ago.

In the background of the story is the almost ubiquitous lack of moral courage found amongst today’s clergy, politicians, policemen and judges. As Sophie’s Methodist preacher uncle speaks of Josiah and Jeremiah, there is a hint of the question, ‘Does this society deserve to survive?’

Sophie is quite daring, but although outwardly feminine and moderately pretty, she is not overly driven by feminine or romantic notions. Near the end we discover that – although not named as such – she is a testicular feminisation syndrome; that is she would have XY chromosomes despite being...

The narrator of the story, Sophie Hughes, holds the view that it matters to be living a life which is honest and worthwhile. Many she meets are like the dwellers in Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah; paying lip-service to high ideals, but inwardly corrupt and self-serving. Events turn out...

In academic Oxford today, not to hold fashionable, tolerant, liberal views about the values which society should embrace, is to be denounced and made an outcast. Imogen – something of a loner and a misfit – falls into this category. Like a school kid who is not wearing the ‘in’ jacket, she is...