The Rose Code: Friendship, Love, and Duty in a Time of War

 

 

 

THE ROSE CODE (2021)

By Kate Quinn

William Morrow, 624 pages.

★★★★

 

There have been so many takes on Britain’s Bletchley Park (BP) World War II codebreakers that one wonders what more can be said. Kudos to Kate Quinn, a Yank no less, for finding unique angles in her novel The Rose Code.

 

Quinn begins in 1939, two years before the United States entered the fray. Germany rolled over most of Europe and with the evacuation of Dunkirk in June 1940, it looked a matter of time until Britain fell as well. The British intercepted German messages, but Germany’s Enigma machines made that information unintelligible. Breaking German codes, which changed daily, was the charge of the men and women of BP in rural Buckinghamshire. Secrecy ran so high that none were allowed to mention what they did, even to loved ones. In a departure from the norm, young men venturing outside the BP compound suffered more discrimination than women; they were scorned as shirkers.

 

Quinn focuses on three women who, to use an English expression, were as different as chalk and cheese. Olsa Kendall came from a well-bred Canadian family that squandered its money. In the class system of the day, Osla was a good catch but unlikely to marry into her nickname: “Princess.” She did have a prospect, though; she is a lightly fictionalized Osla Benning, the wartime girlfriend of Prince Philip of Greece, the future husband of Queen Elizabeth. Mabel Churt, a composite character, was a working-class lass from Shoreditch so tall she was called Queen Mab. Bethan Finch, also a composite, was a local assumed to be dull-witted because she was bullied by her mother, a religious zealot who used her a servant. Beth is actually brilliant. For good and ill, her BP experience transforms her.

 

Quinn introduces us to others inside BP and we come to know them. Wars make strange bedfellows. Osla, Mab, and Beth become colleagues and unlikely friends. The Rose Code is a beat-the-clock novel on all levels. Teams of women worked with paper and pencil trying to break the Enigma code until bombe cryptology machines made the job a little bit easier, but we’re talking 12-16 hours per day of headache-producing concentration. One wonders where they found the energy to create a literary discussion group, write a BP humor/gossip sheet, or go dancing. 

 

Quinn does a wonderful job of placing her characters inside a work hard/play hard environment where relationships unfold fast because they often don’t last long. One character has a marriage of just months. Olsa parties inside a London club one moment and the head of a dance partner is blown off by an air raid the next. She finds solace in Philip, then frets over his fate when he returns to war. (Most of the relationships were relatively chaste because of a prevailing norms and a sense of duty that would have made pregnancy appear a selfish act.)

 

As was often the case, an unbearable weight lay with those who broke codes and couldn’t reveal information of upcoming raids that jeopardized family members or boyfriends of other BP coders. Quinn expertly weaves this into the novel to show how close friendships strained and broke. We follow Osla, Mab, and Beth through the war with occasional flashes to 1947, when several new beat-the-clock scenarios arise that require cooperation among the now-estranged trio. It unfolds in the shadow of the upcoming Royal wedding between Philip and Elizabeth, which provides a bit of cover.

 

Without giving too much away, The Rose Code delves into many things: an open marriage, the death of a beloved section head, personal secrets that slip out, racism, Alan Turing, dollops of male chauvinism, a traitor, Beth’s awakening, duty over love, lobotomy, and the difficulties of rebuilding lives after the war. As paradoxical as it sounds, war sometimes provides a rush that’s more thrilling than peace.

 

This is a novel, so there are things that are overly dramatized, others too neatly resolved, and a view of Philp that won’t please his critics. Ironically, some of the least likely things are true and vice versa. To reveal just one, Kate Middleton’s grandmother was a BP decoder. To sort fact from fiction, make sure you read Quinn’s revelations of how she shaped her book. This is a long novel, but Quinn’s expert character development will make you feel like you’ve polished off a mini-series you didn’t wish to end.

 

Rob Weir