The Rose Code, by Kate Quinn

 

Characters/People
Osla	Mab	Beth	Bletchley Park
Osla Kendall   Prince Philip of Greece   Lord Mountbatten – uncle and godfather   Mr. J. P. E. C. Cornwell   Author of Bletchley Bletherings   Engaged to Giles, 1947	Mabel Churt Mother Lucy – daughter, “younger sister”   Francis Gray – husband, poet, foreign official   Geoffrey Irving – he and friends raped Mabel   Mike – husband, worked at Bletchley Park Twins – Eddie and Lucy	Beth Finch Mother Father Boots - dog   Harry Zorb Sheila – wife Christopher – son, polio   “Alice Liddell” – alias in Clockwell sanitorium	Dillwyn Alfred Knox – “Dilly”   “Dillies Fillies”   Peter Twinn – took over department when Dilly ill   Commander Denniston   Commander Travis – replaced Denniston   Giles Talbot   Harry Zorb   Peggy Rock   Mad Hatters Book Group: Osla, Mab, Beth Giles Harry Glassborrow twins
Others
Ian Fleming, Alan Turing   Princess Elizabeth – “Lilibet”

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition.

1.       Why do you think Beth’s mother treated her like she did?  Why didn’t her father step in?

2.       Were you surprised that Osla got into trouble for pranks such as sneaking in an electric cooker ring to make toast and riding a wheeled laundry bin down the hall into the men’s bathroom (page 271)?  Did this seem in her character?

3.       The third time was not a prank, but her attempt to show how easy it would be to smuggle out secret information.  She did this because people were starting to suspect there was a spy working with the group.  Commander Travis said, “I don’t think we need security advice from a silly deb” (page 273).  Why wasn’t she taken more seriously?

4.       When Beth was working, she was unaware of everything else.  For example, she did not realize that Dilly was terminally ill and that Peter Twinn had replaced him (pages 282-3).  Have you ever been so involved with something you were doing that you were unaware of everything else surrounding you?

5.       Mab blames Osla for Francis and Lucy’s deaths.   Did you understand her feelings?   Were they justified?

6.       In 1944 Peggy told Mab that Beth knew about the Coventry raid but did not tell her.   When Mab asked her why she did not warn them, Beth replied, “How could I put you ahead of everyone at Coventry who would have to sit the raid out, unknowing” (page 493)?  Mab’s reply was, “Because in a war, Beth, you save who you can. Whenever you can” (page 493).  Also, Beth was sworn to secrecy.  Do you think she should have broken the rule and warned them?

7.       What did you think about Osla being told not to write to Prince Philip because of Osla’s job and his sisters who were married to Nazis.  Would her letters have caused any harm? Or, should she have been able to tell him why she was not writing any more?

8.       What might have happened if Osla had not backed away from Philip?

9.       Harry and the other men working at Bletchley Park were looked down on because they were not actively fighting in the war and were often accosted in the street for not being in uniform.   Were you surprised about this? 

10.   At the same time, Osla told Harry that women were “only allowed this work because there’s a war on…and I still don’t get paid what you’re paid” (page 443).  How could they each cope with their feelings of unfairness?

11.   Mab found it difficult to adjust after the war.   After the war she had “peace, prosperity, all the things she’d dreamed of during the war years” (page 404).  But on the other hand, she “wondered if it was purpose she missed…there were no great sweeps of passion or purpose to her days” (page 404).  How hard do you think it was for the code breakers to adjust to daily life after the war?

12.   When Mab and Mike met helping Beth, neither one knew the other had also worked at BP.  How hard would it be to sustain a marriage or a friendship when you could not talk about your day to day life and work?

13.   Were you surprised to find that Giles was the traitor?  He was giving information to the Soviets, US allies, and felt that was the right thing to do to help them in the war.  He also thought he “saved thousands of Allied lives in the USSR” (page 526).  Does this justify what he did?  Does the fact that he took money for the information matter?

14.   When Osla and Mab were interviewed about Beth, do you think they would have defended her more if the raid at Coventry had not happened?  

15.   How did all the secrets (Osla told not to write to Philip, Beth not sharing information about the raid, Giles giving information to the Soviets, both Mab and Mike at BP but unable to share with each other) impact the story?

16.   Did you like the organization of the novel – going between 1939-1944 and the days leading up to the royal wedding?