The Southern Africa Policy Forum: Fifth Conference Book

The first novel here, 'A Bid For Fortune', is pretty dull. Some Victorian plum gets involved in various adventures while trying to make his way in the world, including interminable scenes of terribly prim and proper 'romance' which make Jane Austen look racy. The only interesting scenes are those where the diabolical mesmerist Dr Nikola gets in said plum's way. Boothby was obviously smart enough to realise that he'd found a nugget of gold in his dross, so the next novel was 'Dr Nikola' - narrated by a near-identical plum who is at least teamed up with Nikola. Who, like Harry Lime after him, becomes suddenly less villainous as soon as he's the lead, although to modern sensibilities the fact that his grand scheme involves spending half the book pretending to be a Chinaman might still be thought a little off.