YMMV / The Secret of Chimneys

• Harsher in Hindsight: The background plot centers on the British government supporting the restoration of the Herzoslovakian monarchy, in order to gain access to that country's oil. Less than three decades later, they'd do it for real in Iran. In the long term, that didn't work out very well.
• Values Dissonance: There's a lot of racism and bigotry in this book. Isaacstein is described with a series of anti-Semitic tropes such as Greedy Jew and Sinister Schnoz. The word "dago" is employed quite a bit, including from Anthony the protagonist. And near the end the Herzoslovakian monarchists are briefly horrified at the idea that Prince Nicholas (aka Anthony) might have married a black woman from Africa, only to be reassured that no, he married lily-white Virginia.