In this vintage novel, first published in 1959, Michael Innes provided a new excitement for Sir John Appleby. A top level bacteriological scientist has disappeared and, it is thought, may be carrying round with him a culture of almost inconceivable virulence. Kidnapped? Quitted to the enemy? A nervous breakdown? Or, a more fearful possibility, is he quietly mad and planning the destruction of the whole of verminous humanity? These are the possibilities that face Appleby when he gets his instructions from the Prime Minister at the start of Hare Sitting Up.