Jacqueline Winspear discusses the development of a most unusual detective series that features the private investigator Maisie Dobbs. In this interview the author describes her initial moment of inspiration when she
imagined Maisie dressed in period costume inside the London subway, circa 1929. That vision evolved into the opening chapter of her first Maisie Dobbs book.
"A Lesson in Secrets" is the 8th book in a series that has taken Maisie chronologically through the years from 1919 to 1932, so far. 1932 was the year when Adolph Hitler came to power in Germany. In England there were some people who actually admired Hitler, particularly among the aristocracy.
In "A Lesson in Secrets" Maisie investigates a murder at a college. She is working undercover for a British intelligence agency as she begins to comprehend the full extent of Nazi sympathies among some British academics during 1932.
