The compelling true story of one young nurse’s heroism, heartache and happiness in wartime.
The second world war could not have been won without the bravery and selflessness of women on the Home Front. Women like Kathleen Johnstone.
This first-hand story of one extraordinary but unheralded member of Britain’s ‘Greatest Generation’ brings home with extraordinary lucidity and compassion the realities of wartime Lancashire.
In 1943, Kathleen, then 30 years old, was a nurse-in-training at the Blackburn Royal Infirmary. For the next three years she kept a meticulous diary of her day-to-day existence, leaving behind a vivid record of the real-time concerns of a busy, thoughtful woman on the frontline of the war at home.
Kathleen’s days were never the same. She writes in clear and lively prose about life in the hospital: of her fellow nurses, her patients, about death and dying, and the progress of the war as wounded soldiers returned from Normandy in the summer of 1944. She muses on being working class, wartime austerity, and her anxiety about examinations. Here too are dances, Americans and a POW boyfriend in Germany. Kathleen’s observations are witty, wry and astute – but above all relatable, even today.
Poignant and engrossing, Kathleen Johnstone’s tale of trauma, romance and friendship will leave a lasting impression.
I love reading social history books and A Nurse's War sounds wonderful. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to squeeze it into my reading schedule for the blog tour but I'm delighted to share an extract with you today. Many thanks to HarperNorth and Midas PR for inviting me and for sending me a copy of the novel.
Friday, 17 November 1944
I had a letter today from my fiancé who is a Prisoner of War in Germany. He is very worried because he has not heard from me for months and is afraid something terrible must have happened to me. I imagine he must be thinking that I have been killed by a flying-bomb or rocket as I expect the Germans give them to understand that these things are causing more damage over here than is actually the case. It is two or three months since I heard from him and he says he writes every other week. I sent him an Air Mail letter-card right away but don’t suppose he will get it before Christmas now.
Saturday, 18 November
Today I was off duty at 6 again and went to the pictures again. I seem to have been to more film shows in the last two or three weeks than I usually go to in as many months. Fortunately my friend had the forethought to book or we should not have got in anywhere. The cinemas are always crowded on a Saturday night. The best picture in Town is The Song of Bernadette [who reputedly experienced eighteen visions of the Virgin Mary in 1858], and my friend said he was too late to book for that – all the seats were taken – but I have an idea he was secretly rather relieved. I don’t think that type of picture appeals to him. So we went to see Charles Laughton in The Canterville Ghost, which, considering how ridiculous was the whole story, turned out to be surprisingly amusing and we quite enjoyed it.
Sunday, 19 November
Today was my half-day and as my friend is departing for Scotland on Monday we arranged to meet early with the idea of going into the country for a long walk and having a nice tea somewhere. It was a fine morning but sad to relate it started to rain about 2 o’clock so we decided to go into Preston and go to the pictures in the evening. When we got to Preston the only café we could find open was a little café in the bus station so we went in. Here we were offered egg and chips, which I was sure would turn out to be dried egg, but I was wrong. It was a real egg with a great plateful of chips. There were no pots of tea, just cups of tea poured out of a great jug, and there was a great tray of bread and butter standing on a sideboard from which the waitress slapped a few pieces on a plate for you. Both the waitresses and the tables were surprisingly clean, though, and the place was crowded with Forces and their girl friends. There were even a few officers in there too. I suppose they were all in the same plight that we were – could not find anywhere open. Later on in the evening we went to the pictures and saw Andy Hardy’s Courtship after standing in a queue which seemed miles long. When we came out the last bus, which leaves at 8.25 for Blackburn, had gone so we had to come back by train. We stood in a queue for tickets and were packed like sardines in the last train from Preston to Blackburn on a Sunday night.
I'm looking forward to reading more of Kathleen's diary soon.
A Nurse's War can be purchased from bookshop.org, Hive, Waterstones, Amazon or from your favourite independent bookshop.
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About the Authors
Patricia and Robert Malcolmson are social historians who have edited several diaries for publication. They have edited three different volumes of the diaries of Nella Last, the inspiration for the award-winning drama Housewife, 49:, Nella Last’s Peace, Nella Last in the 1950s and the collected edition The Diaries of Nella Last. Patricia and Robert’s other books include The View from the Corner Shop: The Diary of a Yorkshire Shop Assistant in Wartime (the diary of Mass Observation writer Kathleen Hey) and Women at the Ready, a history of the Women’s Voluntary Service on the Home Front during the Second World War. They live in Nelson, British Columbia, Canada.
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