Rosie Raja: Mission to Cairo
September 1941, and Rosie Raja and her father visit a WAAF training school in England. The drive there has been, she surmises, an excuse to persuade Rosie, whose mother has died, to go to boarding school. But eleven-year old Rosie rejects school and insists on accompanying her father on his foreign mission. It’s a twist away from boarding school as a device to get the adults out of the way. Instead, Rosie joins the adults, participating in secret war briefings.
Hence, Rosie goes to Cairo. The whole world, it seems, is here. There are people from across the British Empire: India, Australasia, Canada. There are Americans. And there are Nazi spies. And, of course, there are Egyptians, keen to build their recently independent nation. In the museum, Rosie meets Fatima, a young girl who wants to protect her country’s archaeological treasures. The city comes to life as Fatima shows Rosie the Pyramids, Tutankhamun’s sarcophagus, and Al-Azar Mosque.
Rosie, of course, is drawn into her father’s spy mission, driving a story of mystery and danger. Including a child in briefings, trusting her with adult war secrets, challenged my belief – but, how else would a junior spy discover what’s going on? I was also puzzled that WAAFs wore navy blue uniforms, rather than air force blue.
However, Rosie, half Indian, half British, is fun to be with, and she – and we – learn lots about Egypt, the British Empire, how nasty the Nazis were, and how friends help each other.
The story is one of a series, with reminders of Rosie’s previous adventures in France.
