The young Mrs. Hawkins is a wonderful woman, a personification of calm, always there for everyone. With her motherly and vivacious opulence, she provides support and strength to the struggling London publishing house where she works. Just as reliably, she also fends off annoying writers with well-aimed sharpness. Decades later, Mrs. Hawkins has become the slender Nancy and takes us back to Kensington in the 1950s, a place full of sophisticated, even wicked surprises.