The penultimate season of the hugely successful, long-running drama introduces a host of new characters. There's Beth Bailey, a brilliant ex-mercenary who was posing as an Eastern European prostitute when she ran into the team. Dimitri, an ex officer in British Special Forces, has been recruited for his skills in fighting terrorism on the front line. And finally, data analyst Tariq has been fast-tracked through the system.

Johnny Worricker and Margot Tyrrell as they are on the run across Europe, with MI5 hard on their heels. But life in exile is proving much harder than either of them expected. Worricker knows that his only chance of resolving both his personal and his professional lives is if he returns home to confront the powerful prime minister, Alec Beasley. In a duel of wits between the two men, there will be only one winner.

"Anne Glenconner has been at the center of the royal circle from childhood, when she met and befriended the future Queen Elizabeth II and her sister, the Princess Margaret. Though the firstborn child of the 5th Earl of Leicester, who controlled one of the largest estates in England, as a daughter she was deemed "the greatest disappointment" and unable to inherit. Since then she has needed all her resilience to survive the vipers of court life with...