Academia n. a profession filled with bad food kneejerk liberalism andmurder...Being a member of the House of Lords and Mistress of St Marthas College inCambridg... » 

Academia n. a profession filled with bad food kneejerk liberalism andmurder...Being a member of the House of Lords and Mistress of St Marthas College inCambridge might seem enough to keep anyone busy but Baroness Jack Troutbecklikes new challenges. When a combination of weddings work and spookerydeprives her of five of her closest allies she leaps at an invitation tobecome a Distinguished Visiting Professor on an American campus. With her headfull of romantic fantasies inspired by 1950s Hollywood and accompanied byHorace her loquacious and disconcerting parrot this intellectuallyrigorousrightwinger sets off from England blissfully unaware that academia in theUnited States is dominated by kneejerk liberalism contempt for Westerncivilization and the institutionalisation of a form of insane politicalcorrectness. Will the bon viveuse Baroness Troutbeck be able to cope with theculinary and vinous desert that is New Paddington Indiana? Can thisinsensitive and tactless human batteringram defeat the thoughtpolice who runFreeman State University like a gulag? Does she believe the late Provost wasmurdered? If so what should she do about it? And will she manage to persuadeRobert Amisswho describes himself bitterly as Watson to her Holmes and Goodwinto her Nero Wolfeto abandon his honeymoon and fly to her side? «