Matron at Last

Nov 30, 2024 2:37 AM

Author:Evelyn Prentis

Matron at Last

'When do you have a bath?' I asked Mrs Turgoose.

'I hope you're not suggesting that I don't look after meself properly,' she said crossly. 'There was a woman who used to use it, but that was because she was a bit stuck up. She soon went off the idea when it started to get cold.'

After working as a nurse for thirty years, Evelyn left the hospital to become a full-time Matron at The Lodge - a home for elderly ladies of reduced circumstances.

Evelyn was nothing like the matrons she had known and feared in the past. In spite of broken nights and hot dinners left to get cold, Mrs Peters with her temper and Mrs Harrison with her 24-hour piano playing, her new role offered a chance to make a difference to her ladies' lives.

Even though it did mean she was on call twenty-four hours a day, this is Evelyn's funny and affectionate memoir of her years - at last! - as a Matron.

Reviews

Perceptive, warm and very funny

—— Sunday Telegraph

Highly amusing and entertaining

—— Derby Evening Telegraph

A moving portrait of a marriage and an uneasy sense of life's banalities as well as its profundities

—— Simon Humphreys , Mail on Sunday

I was very much moved by An Exclusive Love... Johanna Adorján writes with beautiful precision and suppleness... A truly memorable book

—— Diana Athill

Beautifully written... ...the precision of the detail and the nuance of the writing somehow make the narrative resonate

—— Piers Plowright , Tablet

Caddick-Adams is a pre-eminent military historian ... an extremely readable book that gives a balanced and honest view of the two men. Well worth a read - probably one to put on your summer holiday reading list or your Christmas present list.

—— AARSE – British Army Forum

A new study by Peter Caddick-Adams ... succeeds in contextualising these two commanders and in analysing the contributions each made to the art of military leadership. The use of the comparative method enables us to see not only how different these two men were, but also how difficult it remains to define what successful military leadership is all about

—— The Tablet

Very entertaining and stylistic writer

—— James Holland, History Today

Monty and Rommel: Parallel Lives, is an utterly absorbing and entertaining book devoted to two of the most charismatic and strategically important military leaders of the Second World War .... It is certainly a must for anyone with a modicum of interest in the military and contemporary history

—— The Networker

A first-class work of scholarly and entertaining history

—— Andrew Roberts

A wonderful mine of information for fans of either general ... [Caddick-Adams] is a military historian of great industry who shows an impressive grasp of his materials ... The author's central purpose is achieved with impressive and cumulative success as his book progresses

—— New Republic

This biography is one of a kind … tactical talents, personalities and military careers are rivetingly compared and evaluated

—— Express

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