Welcome friend! Today I am excited to bring you this conversation with Kate Westbury about her debut novel, The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies. This book is one of my favorites this year. It’s cast, setting, plot were so interesting that I was transported to 1950s Oxford and loved being there beside Gin and Sidney. Let’s get to know more about the book and the author behind it in this interview. I hope you enjoy. 🙂
The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies
Set against the backdrop of post-WWII Oxford University, The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies is the irresistible debut from Kate Westbury that seamlessly layers mystery, romance, and a dash of academia to introduce the Crown’s newest undercover operatives.
Oxford, England, 1951 – The Honorable Ginevra Bishop likes red lipstick, clever retorts, and earning top marks in her tutorials. She’s following her mother’s footsteps by studying at Oxford, eager to prove she’s more than a debutante.
Sidney Braithwaite likes brooding, Latin, and ignoring his nightmares. He’s determined to forge a new life for himself at Oxford, far from his childhood mining village and free from memories of the war.
Though Gin and Sidney have little in common, the British Security Service is keen to unite her charm with his espionage experience: there’s a Soviet spy at the university, and the agent tracking them down was poisoned. MI5 wants Gin and Sidney to pick up the trail and identify the informant before more sensitive information is compromised. As a team, the pair of undergraduates clash in personality, upbringing, and taste––but have a connection neither can deny. Gin and Sidney must unite their respective talents to follow the clues before they’re caught in the traitor’s crosshairs…if the sparks flying between them don’t blow up the operation first.
Get to know the author: Kate Westbury
Hi Kate! Welcome to Armed with A Book. It is a pleasure to chat with you. Please tell me and my readers a bit about yourself.
Hello! I am a lifelong fan of mysteries, particularly Golden Age writers like Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. It took me thirteen years to get published, and I spent a long time writing middle grade before finally shifting gears. I was scared to try my hand at writing a mystery because failing at my favorite thing would have stung too much, but making that change was the best thing that could have happened for my writing.
Apart from mysteries, I read a lot of historical fantasy. I do love watching a BritBox/Masterpiece mystery series, but my go-to comfort shows are Taskmaster, Survivor, and Great British Bake Off.
Oxford is such an evocative setting for a mystery. Why did you choose post-WWII Oxford as the place to begin Gin and Sidney’s story?
This decision partly happened years ago when I first shifted to writing adult historical mysteries. As a writer who doesn’t have a history background or a specialty that would have guided my choice of time period, I put a lot of thought into choosing a setting that both interested me enough to enjoy the research and felt like there was room in the market to sell a book. Postwar England fascinated me, especially how it differed from 1950s America, and that early research inspired many of the b-plots in Oxford Guide. When I started working on this book specifically, I was keen to write an academia mystery (Gaudy Night is one of my favorite books), and Cold War espionage seemed like a great way to bring amateur sleuths into the plot. When I learned John le Carré worked for MI5 during his student years at Oxford in the early 1950s, the idea took off from there.
I was curious about women’s place at Oxford in this period. How had the World Wars changed the student population at the university, particularly for women like Gin who were entering Oxford in the early 1950s?
Women had been attending Oxford since 1879, but they weren’t allowed to matriculate until 1920. During the war with the men’s enrolment numbers down, the university raised the quota of women allowed to attend, and this became permanent after the war (and eventually abolished). After the war, there was a huge influx of men and women who’d put their education on hold and soldiers now able to attend funded by grants. The average student age of postwar Oxford was significantly older, and the ratio of male to female students also significantly higher, so dating was even more competitive. The women’s colleges were slowly gaining more equal footing with the men’s, but there were still a lot of inequities (e.g. curfew hours, repercussions if you got in trouble, etc.).
The Damocles Club has prestige, exclusivity, and a reputation worth protecting. Young men are willing to go to considerable lengths to gain entry into the Damocles. What interested you about the desire to belong to an elite society and the cliques because of it?
All of the characters in this book want to be accepted, but they go about it in different ways. Gin and Sidney both prize their place as top students, but she fights the patriarchal naysayers with charm (or snark), and Sidney grits his teeth and trusts hard work will prove he deserves to be there despite his working-class background. Neither of them are interested in the transactional nature of social acceptance, and the value they both place on authenticity is one of the things that ultimately brings them together.
And then you have sweet Harold and his desire to be a part of the exclusive Damocles Club. The new money/old money dynamic is probably familiar to Anglophiles, but I thought it was particularly poignant in this setting because this upper-class way of life essentially ends in the 1950s. Donald is clinging to distinctions that will mean very little in a decade, and eventually Harold is going to be the one the Damocles alumni are fighting to befriend.
Oxford gives Gin and Sidney access to books, ideas, and intellectual communities, but it also has plenty of secrets hiding behind its traditions. What made academia such a fun environment for a spy mystery?
I suspect there is a lot of overlap between people who enjoy school (studying and/or teaching) and people who like puzzles and mysteries, probably because those groups of people have a lot of natural curiosity. A mystery is basically a little cerebral game of how well you can pay attention and pass a test, and setting mysteries inside academia where the characters share that curiosity and puzzling instinct makes them very sympathetic. (And of course, codes and puzzles are essential in espionage fiction!)
Gin and Sidney come from such different worlds. Gin is determined to prove that she is more than a debutante, while Sidney is trying to build a new life. What made these two the right people to put together?
I cannot resist opposites forced to work together (and I especially enjoy smart people who make dumb decisions because of their blind spots and biases – Pride and Prejudice is a perfect example of this). Gin and Sidney are similar in many ways—e.g. the things they value and want from life—but the exterior trappings of upbringing and temperament hide those commonalities. The fun of a good opposites-attract pairing is when they crack through the facade and find empathy with one another, and it’s one of my favorite chapters in Oxford Guide.
I loved Gin’s sharp intellect, particularly during the party at Foxley Hall. If you had to choose one line that best captures Gin’s personality, which would it be?
Oh, Ginevra. I still catch myself shaking my head at her antics, only to realize I wrote this character. I love ever zinger she throws at Donald, but the line that probably best captures her zesty personality is during the Foxley Hall party:
“It does seem rather absurd that society dictates we wear an article of clothing that is flimsy, uncomfortable, and above all, transparent,” Gin said flatly. “That one should have to closely inspect a woman’s legs to determine if they are even worn or not seems unbearably rude.”
Sidney’s experience in the war is both part of what made him who he is and something he is trying to escape. I particularly noticed his distinction between being used and being useful. What does that distinction mean to him?
It comes down to choice and honesty. Sidney grew up with the expectation to follow his father into the mines, and going into the army was his first strike at choosing a future for himself. That, however, ultimately backfires when he feels reduced to an interchangeable cog in the Rook’s plans. A reader might think Sidney is selfish because he doesn’t immediately agree to help his country when the Rook comes back into his life, but he does like to be helpful—he also wants an open conversation about expectations and outcomes rather than being led blindly, to be a partner instead of tool. We see this mirrored in his relationship with Ginevra, and recognizing his own double-standard starts the shift toward a better partnership.
What did you want Sidney’s story to say about class and the possibility—or difficulty—of reinventing yourself?
The pairing of possibility and difficulty is exactly right. In many ways the world is his oyster to change the trajectory of his life, but consider how long it takes for a pearl to form. Good thing patience is one of Sidney’s strengths!
I was curious about the student paper, The Blue, and looking it up, I found The Oxford Blue that was established in 2020. What drew you to include a student paper in the novel? What role does student journalism play in uncovering stories and challenging the narratives that more powerful institutions might prefer to control?
The student paper in Oxford Guide is a microcosm of the broader social dynamics at the university. Though student-owned and operated, it’s still helmed by someone who wants to maintain the status quo; women are on staff yet relegated to particular roles and topics. But as one character expresses so adamantly, a student paper is for the students, not the people in control, and doggedness at chasing down stories that have been purposefully buried will help force change.
(Funny enough, I had no idea The Oxford Blue was a current paper because I only researched the student papers that were active in the 40s/50s. I’m going to blame the historical blinders on this one, though I’m extremely pleased my naming instincts were spot on.)
And now I’m curious about the person behind this wonderful mystery: I loved the references to chess throughout the novel. Is chess a game you play or enjoy watching, and was it particularly significant to the period you’re writing about?
I do like chess, but my husband is so good that it’s not very fun to play him (all those men grumbling about being beaten by Ginevra is my personal experience). But fifteen years married to someone who adores chess does rub off on you, and that plot element was definitely inspired by him. The 1950s were a huge decade for chess as it ascended in popularity, and the specific misogyny Ginevra experiences in the chess club was very much an issue. In many ways, the game became symbolic of the Cold War as the Soviet Union and United States battled for dominance at the world tournaments.
Are you the kind of mystery reader who tries to solve the crime before the detective does, or do you prefer to let the story surprise you?
I have been a different kind of reader in different seasons of life. I used to love solving the mystery before the characters—and then I had kids, and as a tired mom I just wanted to follow a quirky detective and enjoy someone else using their brain when mine was too lethargic to function. Now, I’m somewhere in the middle. (I cannot solve an audiobook mystery to save my life though; I have to see the clues on the page to remember them.)
Is there anything else you would like to add?
It took me thirteen years to get published, but I’m so glad The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies was my debut because it’s a tapestry of things I love, and that makes it easy to talk about. I’m so glad it’s finding readers who love those things too.
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me! I am so excited to see what’s next for Gin and Sidney.
Thank you, reader, for joining me and Kate today!
The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies is now available wherever books are sold! Be sure to check your local library too. Add this book on Goodreads. You can read my review here.
Many thanks to the Minotaur Books for the review copy and the interview opportunity! I appreciate every book that meets me in my mailboxes and every author who will take a few moments to chat about their book.
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