This is Georgeanne’s kind of town. She’s an urbanite. She loves high-profile events, posh restaurants, the theatre, haute couture. Speaks English, French, German and halting Spanish. Loves music, loves to dance. Supports Manchester United (I’m for Arsenal.) Business suits are her body armour and boardrooms are where she fights her battles. She has gym and Diner’s Club memberships and religiously patronizes expensive spas, salons and beauty shops. Is into yoga and dieting. Elaborate dinners flowing with flowers, wine and laughter are right up her street. Loves Nairobi. Both of them can be described as ‘cosmopolitan.’ Georgeanne makes friends easily and always displays a healthy interest in other people’s lives.

You might be wondering what an alpha female like her is doing with a cynical, average-salaried government employee like me but rest assured that I have often asked myself the same question. Despite the fact that my wife and I go back a long way, I feel a tinge of jealousy every time I see her laughing with the other suits – because that’s what she is now; a suit, a management type, a white-collar practitioner.

So Friday night, then, in a town like Georgeanne. A moonless sky presiding over us. The streets alive with spies. And Egypt on our minds...