a) as far as I can see having exactly the same characters as the other Philip Hensher novel I read described in exactly the same way (figuratively not literally, it is not a prequel)
b) and the funeral described was very much like the wedding in the other one
c) and as I have said before, decades of SF, fandom, geekdom have made me so jaded that a mild sex scandal amongst the great and good of London doesn't really interest me. Unless there are furries at the very least, I don't want to know.