Doctor Margaret's Sea Chest by Waheed Rabbani

Published by YouWriteOn

ISBN  978-1-84923-177-0

The first part of the Azadi Trilogy begins in India in 1965.  An old sea chest has been discovered in the hospital where Dr Wallidad Sharif is spending a year away from his American practice, working in Delhi.  The chest has lain unnoticed and unclaimed since 1856, and has only recently come to light.  Dr Sharif is asked to take the trunk to America when he returns home with a view to finding the owner's family and delivering the contents to them.  He becomes enthralled with the owner of the chest, a Dr Margaret Wallace, and discovers that there may be a connection between her and his own ancestors.   His wife, who is a lawyer, joins him in the quest, and together they piece together the story of the lady doctor, and how her sea chest came to be abandoned at St Stanleys Hospital in Delhi.  The diary of Dr Sharif's grandfather also comes to light at this time, and he is able to cross-reference many aspects of Dr Margaret's history.

The action is mostly split into two time frames - the 1850s, when Dr Margaret was a fledgling doctor and used her skills to tend to wounded soldiers in the Crimea before moving on to India, and the 1960s, when her story unfolds through the pages of her journals, which are found in the sea chest.  Also found in the trunk is a lost treasure, which is being sought by both the CIA and KGB! 

There is a fascinating insight into the struggle that women in the mid 19th century had to endure to practice medicine.  It was thought undignified for women to see the naked body of a man, and only the persistence of people like Florence Nightingale proved that women were more than capable of being nurses and doctors.

The book ends as the families gather to read the third of the journals, which looks set to contain more startling revelations, and the scene is set for part two of the Trilogy. 

A well researched and beautifully written story.