The Bearded Queen by Jill Shakley (Paperback)

When in 1932 young Richard Goodale travels to London to visit his older brother, Rodney, he finds himself swept up by Rodney's eccentric boss into a plot to recover a stolen stamp. Despite his new-found preoccupation with learning to draw, Richard's initiation into burglary instead finds him retreating across two countries in company with a voluptuous poet (never poetess), just one of the surprising characters he meets.