Lucy Meeson-Smith works at a big bookmakers and always manages to back the winners. Her employers become suspicious and take her to court for fraud. At her trail it is revealed that her father, a vicar, studies form avidly and is a brilliant tipster (though he himself is not a betting man).

The judge in the case, Mr Justice Painswick is most intrigued by the evidence. His own personal life is complicated by his son - a throughgoing cad who is deeply in debt. Find out how these personalities are brought together in a lively and unexpected way in this witty, upheat novel.

Henry Cecil was born near London in 1902 and was called to the Bar in 1923. Later in 1949 he was appointed at a County Court Judge, a position he held until 1967. He used these experiences as inspiration for his work. His books are works of great comic genius with upredictable twists of plot which highlight the often absurd contradictions of the legal system. He died in 1976.