At the end of the eighteenth century young girls fall in love with handsome men, get married, and believe - of course - that they will live happily ever after. In the middle of the Napoleonic wars, in search of a lost child and lost love, one young girl travels to Egypt, through Cleopatra’s old city of Alexandria, to the little town of Rosetta at the mouth of the Nile. There the Rosetta Stone, that will unlock the Egyptian hieroglyphs and tell the secrets of the world, has just been discovered. And, there, other discoveries are made also. Listen to Barbara talking on Google video about Rosetta
 

REVIEWS

A brilliantly evocative and superbly researched re-creation of a period fascinated by the Rosetta Stone and the decipherment of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.  For Barbara Ewing, history is not merely a decorative background for romance, but the very centre of a passionate and enthralling intellectual adventure.
DR RICHARD PARKINSON, Assistant Keeper, department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, the British Museum

" A delightful plum pudding of a historical novel"  SUNDAY TIMES
 
“….engrossing saga set in 1795, following Rose and Fanny from their innocent childhoods and premature marriages.....both women undertake heroic journeys,...one flees to India while the other embarks on an even more gruelling adventure to Egypt. The feminist agenda of rebellion and enlightenment mirrors one of the major preoccupations of the Romantic age and there are some fascinating historical details....absorbing.
TIME OUT
 
“....a convincing and stirring period epic.”
NEW ZEALAND HERALD