Duff Gordon in Italy

Duff Gordon in Italy is a comedy drama set in Northern Italy and Switzerland. It is the first in a series of romps around Europe featuring Duff Gordon Associates of Piccadilly, an organisation loved by the British Establishment where the utmost discretion is required. In this story Count Ferdinand Vespucci needs new keys to his vault box in a Zurich bank. His father enabled the Nazis to buy in to the Swiss banking system in 1942 and capital and substantial interest is due. Proof of this is in the promissory note in the family box. Vespucci discovers his key no longer fits the box which strongly suggests the bank is stalling on the repayment of 800 million Swiss Francs, 650 million Euro. Time is running out for the Vespucci brand names, Pucci Pasticceria and Pucci Pomodori that are facing unprecedented hard times. In desperation Vespucci calls on his chum from his Oxford University College days, Duff Gordon. Armed with new keys, the elder of the count's sons Clementino, (Clementino and Ignatio are Little People), discovers the note is missing from the box and that the bank is actually owned by a Neo-Nazi organization known as the "Stalhelm." This organization has access to the rear of the vault boxes. Duff Gordon Associates comes to the rescue once more with plans for an audacious robbery in which Clementino and Ignatio will retrieve the promissory note, rare Nazi documents and paraphernalia once belonging to Adolph Hitler. These will be used to encourage the bank to pay the money owing. The twins find safe haven from Nazi thugs with a relative, the Countess Anna at her estate in St. Moritz in Switzerland, until they venture out into the fairground they love ... Tensions between the twins are many, not least because only one, Clementino, will inherit the title count and family estate at Bergamo, being born twenty minutes before his brother. Both boys are in love with different girls, Ignatio with Gabrielle, a completely unsuitable (in his father's eyes) shepherd's daughter and Clementino with Sophie, a six foot four inch debutante who, unfortunately, prefers girls. The ending is a cliff-hanger that begins with Gabrielle saving her beloved Ignatio from certain death, on a cliff face.