Priscilla's Spies

School honours have left seventeen-year-old Frank Mannix thoroughly pleased with himself when his summer holiday takes him to Rosnacree in the west of Ireland. Cricket victories, polished manners and carefully chosen clothes establish his confidence before he sets out to stay with his uncle, Sir Lucius Lentaigne. George A. Birmingham builds the comedy around this assured young visitor and a coastal world where sailing, family arrangements and suspicions about spies provide plenty of matter for talk.

Priscilla supplies much of the novel's liveliness through quick judgments and cheerful explanations of her own conduct. In a scene with Miss Rutherford and Jimmy Kinsella, preparations for soup share attention with disputed stories, school memories and the possible significance of a War Office visitor. Practical details, including a paraffin stove and the timing of the tide, keep the adventure close to everyday holiday life. Readers interested in comic conversation and Irish settings will find a story attentive to vanity, teasing and the ease with which ordinary events acquire mysterious meanings.