The diary of Olivia Berkeley

A sweeping coming-of-age story told through the private diary of Lady Olivia Elisabeth Berkeley, beginning at thirteen years old and ending on the eve of her twentieth year. From a Hampshire boarding school where she first encounters the singular mind of Sherlock Holmes, through the drawing rooms of Berlin and the sun-drenched terraces of the South of France, to the corridors of the Foreign Office and the cold streets of Moscow, Olivia grows from a sharp-tongued aristocratic girl into one of the most formidable young women in Her Majesty's service.
The diary traces not only her professional ascent but the private losses that shape her, a first love that ends with deliberate honesty, a best friend lost too young, a mother she never knew, and her slow, complicated drift toward Mycroft Holmes, a man who is her equal in nearly every way and who cannot quite bring himself to be brave enough. Written with wit, precision, and an unflinching commitment to honesty, the diary closes with Olivia heading to Oxford, the formula in her coat, and every door of her life simultaneously open.