Description

From back of reprint (1947) dust jacket:

War in the Desert -- long horizons, the burning sun, and British men and girls fighting against the arch-enemy of Freedom.

When Margaret went out to Egypt with her ambulance it was at the call of her country and -- all unknown to her -- to meet Guy Ingram, the young officer on whom his country depended for so much. But there was Lee Somerville too, and he was a problem and a temptation that would have made any girl falter. How Margaret and Sally and Ann -- and all that Bevy of Maids -- tackled the problem on which so much depended makes one of Anne Duffield's mos exciting and colourful novels.

Notes

Love the dust jacket and the setting -- Egypt, 1941, temporary/transit base -- is novel and colorfully described. The idea of a privately-funded ambulance corps attaching itself to a military mission is engaging -- was this actually at thing? I wonder how often it happened? Also of note is the strong strain of anti-Americanism. Duffield's characters resent America's isolationism -- "I hate him and his country and everything they stand for" -- they feel that America is fiddling while England fights. It's a repeat, or a continuation, they say, of WWI, where the US let England "bleed itself white" before coming in (and taking the credit). The American character who embodies this noninterventionist viewpoint (until he gets his awakening in a bombing raid) makes the argument that Europe has gotten itself into this mess, this "crazy schemozzle" twice now, that war's "a mug's game", and that England and France have been busy, themselves, taking over the globe rather than tending their neighborhood. Interesting perspectives.

Beyond that, the plot's nothing special and the main relationship, unconvincing. The female MC is 19 and, aside from being plucky and patriotic, doesn't seem to have much personality. It's unclear why the 35 year old, intelligent and experienced male mc would fall for her, their few previous interactions being pretty banal. This is always a challenge with age-difference storylines, and Duffield struggles to make it work. The more complex, sympathetic character -- a 32-year-old widow ("she must have been lovely once") -- gets the fuzzy end of the lollipop. And the ableism (as we'd now call it) runs high: everyone tries to talk a character out of sticking with her blinded soldier and their wedding is openly referred to as "a tragic marriage". Summation: Had potential, but just ok.

Flags: Fiance is from the Southern US and racist references to servants, etc. in opening pages. Aforementioned disability stuff.

Tags

1940s, Egypt, English, age difference, already taken, beautiful/handsome, brave, courageous, charming, determined, disappointed in love, disciplined, dominant, driver, f/m, female, forbidden love, forced proximity, hair, blond(e), hair, dark, idealistic, intelligent, kind, military base, principled, romance, soldier, sweet-tempered, tall, third-person, war, workplace, wounded, young

Flags

insensitive or outdated language (race/ethnicity/disability/sexual orientation), insensitive racial/ethnic portrayal/stereotyping