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One of those Kids

A Tangle of Identities

Chapters in a Journey

Southampton
(free chapter)

Home at Dad's

Yasseen, recently arrived in Cairo, practises Egyptian body language in the mirror at home, fends off a telephone flirt and ventures apprehensively out to eat at a café where he makes some new friends.

A series of flashbacks follows as Yasseen recalls his past :

Southampton

Yasseen's emotional departure for Port Said. (free downloadable chapter)

Dinner at Gran's

Family rows in Montego Bay.

Gower Street

The London School of Tropical Medicine, 1927-28, where Yasseen's doctor parents met.

Dinner at Sea

New acquaintances on the ship talk of Cairo and Alex. Yasseen returns in thought to rows with officialdom about dual nationality.

Great Aunt Consy

Yasseen remembers visiting England with his mother when he was four-years-old for the 1937 Coronation celebrations. His aunt tells him about clairvoyance and trouble follows. He is sent back home with a family friend.

Louche

Back in Montego Bay Yasseen casts a spell to get rid of Louche, his nanny. But Louche does not disappear, as Yasseen had hoped. Instead, Hassan, his father, leaves for Cairo. Yasseen thinks guiltily that his spell has misfired. He feels he must one day go to Egypt to find Hassan.

Biggles

Louche leaves under a cloud, but 1938 is a time of riots and smoke bombs in Jamaica and Yasseen has more on his mind than usual. He and some friends light a bonfire to attract two planes off HMS Ajax which are patrolling Jamaican skies.

The Bay of Biscay

A seasick Yasseen recalls the university demo against Eden's Suez action.

The Laird

Yasseen, his mother, brother and Aunt Consy go to live in the Jamaican countryside. Lightning and an eccentric Scottish neighbour enliven the district.

Egypt's Blood

As the ship nears Port Said, the seas are brown with Nile mud and shipboard friends think ruefully of a parting of their ways.

Miss Hazel

Yasseen runs away from his first boarding school in Jamaica. He is given a lesson in forensic medicine. At his next school he runs the gauntlet.

Hamlet's Castle

School in England: two contrasting schools.

Port Said

A travel agency messenger takes Yasseen to a nightclub and next day puts him aboard a bus for Cairo.

Home at Dad's

Yasseen, at home in Cairo at last, finds himself a sort of family showpiece.