Belle Nash and the Bath Soufflé

When Mrs Gaia Champion hosts her first supper after the untimely death of her adored husband, the meal does not go wholly to plan. Enter Bellerophon ‘Belle’ Nash: city councillor, bachelor extraordinaire and putative grandson of Bath’s original Master of Ceremonies, Beau Nash. Together with a group of eccentric lady friends, Belle sets out to explore the reasons for Gaia’s culinary mishap, only to expose a web of intrigue that goes to the heart of Regency Bath’s rotten judicial system. In the course of the story, Belle struggles to retain the commitment of his German ‘cousin’, and Princess Victoria – not yet Queen – persuades Gaia that all women can break through the barriers of male repression.