E.M.Delafield wrote in the thirties an extraordinary set of books that were put together under the series "The Provincial Lady". After the success of the previous books, her editor asked her to go to Russia in the "in-between-wars" period, and write a "funny" book about that country. Although the style and humor are slightly different than the others in the series, it manages to be on itself a thoroughly interesting book about one woman's experiences in Communist Russia in the early 1930's.