The first of Dorothy Dunnett’s books about yachtsman, portrait painter and spy Johnson Johnson was published in 1968, appearing between the third of her chronicles of Francis Crawford of Lymond,

(1966) and the fourth,

(1969), both historical novels set in the sixteenth century.

had ended on a moment of high drama as the hero learns for the first time that he is a father, and that his infant son is in the sole power of the villain; he resolves to set off in instant pursuit to find and rescue the child, and Dunnett’s many devoted readers must have been surprised and frustrated when the next book she published proved to have nothing to do with Lymond and his quest for the child but was instead a kind of James Bond pastiche set in…

1617 words

Citation: Hopkins, Lisa. "Rum Affair". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 June 2025 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=42078, accessed 08 July 2025.]