Gloomsbury

A security breach at the foreign office means Henry sees spies everywhere at Sizzlinghurst. His paranoia is fuelled by Vera's procession of clandestine visitors.

When Henry decides to work from home, Vera is forced to rearrange her secret liaison with Venus to prevent Henry discovering her betrayal.

But Henry has more pressing matters to attend to. His boss at the Foreign Office is coming down for a secret meeting to discuss a breach of security at Sizzlinghurst and, as a result, Henry can't stop seeing spies around every corner.

His paranoia is fuelled by the arrival of a journalist and photographer from the Observer newspaper, who have come to interview Vera, and by the unexpected visit of Ginny Fox and her Socialist husband, Lionel, who have come to do research for Ginny's new novel on the Foreign Office.

Everyone appears to be asking intrusive questions and Henry becomes very, very twitchy - especially when he discovers that the interviewer is the working class genius DH Lollipop and the photographer his occasional squeeze, Venus Traduces. Now Henry feels betrayed and only Vera denouncing Venus in public can assuage his jealous rage.