On the Back of the Other Side

A Victorian lady from a well-to-do family was brought up from birth only to cultivate those ladylike accomplishments that equipped her for the marriage market-and nothing more.

When Liz Fairhurst, a vivacious last-year student of the Course of Catering and Hotel Management and a concert pianist, finds she was made to change places with Emily, her identical-looking but stupid and evil-minded Victorian double, it takes all her skill and courage to fight her way back to her own time and her own body. Or does she?

She has to learn the ways of the Victorian ''high ton'' and cope with the agonies and restrictions of Victorian high fashion, to turn the dangers and treachery around her to her advantage.

It is all totally impossible, but the details of Victorian fashionable life and adventure on the high seas, though carefully researched, are almost as incredible and make for a fast-moving narrative. If you want a work of literature, then look elsewhere. This is a woman's adventure story, a romance, and hopefully just a good read.