The setting: Post WW2 London
The setting: Post WW2 London
"In 1953, a young girl moves to London with her blacklisted parents. There, she meets a curious apothecary and befriends a boy in her school who dreams of becoming a spy. Adventure ensues.
The book is told from Janie's point of view, and we experience with her the strangeness of moving to another country, from sunny, carefree Hollywood to cold, war-scarred London. The whole world, still recovering from WWII, is now in constant fear of the Bomb — in particular, whether the Russians will get it, whether this new idea of a hydrogen bomb will come to fruition. The schools still have duck-and-cover drills, never mind that it wouldn't save you from a conventional bomb, let alone an atomic bomb."
Source: Wired