The cheerful Mrs Pollifax is once again plunged headfirst into a hair-raising secret mission.

Posing as a tourist, she is sent on a CIA operation to China, to help rescue a dissident engineer from a labour camp and smuggle him out of the country ... "before the Russians get to him".

Not all goes as planned though - and Mrs P. all but loses her life in the bargain.

Armed with only an open mind and a little karate, Mrs Pollifax is the most unlikely and lovable of international spies.