Nurse On Call

Sep 23, 2024 12:32 AM

Author:Edith Cotterill

Nurse On Call

'Never had I seen so many fleas! Startled by the daylight, they leapt in all directions, particularly mine. Quickly I peeled off her stockings and threw them on the fire, but by now the fleas had invaded her combinations. As for the fur coat, I shuddered to think ...'

Training in a hospital in the 1930s, Edith Cotterill's long hours on the wards included encouraging leeches to attach to patients (a task much harder than you might think) and the disposal in the furnace of amputated limbs. Although hospital life did have its compensations - it was there during World War 2 an injured sailor who became her husband.

After the birth of their two daughters, Edith returned to work in the 1950s as a district nurse. Whether she was ridding ageing spinsters of fleas or dishing out penicillin and enemas, Edith approached even the most wayward of patients with humour, compassion and warmth.

Reviews

Brilliant ... a rare book of truth and insight containing hilarious and soul wrenching stories of patients, hospital practice and colleagues, wartime traumas and post-war austerity. Ending with one of the most tragic and moving stories I have ever read

—— Jennifer Worth, bestselling author of CALL THE MIDWIFE

Touching and tender, full of comic but courageous characters, Edith Cotterill's Nurse on Call goes straight to the heart

—— She

Ought to provide the perfect antidote to today's bureaucratic National Health Service

—— Daily Mail

Heartwarming

—— Yours

Impressively engaging...it will be the rare music lover that does not come away without having learned many interesting things

—— Guardian

Ball....proves as comfortable discussing the science of music as its cultural and artistic dimensions... This thought-provoking book answers many questions, and leaves a few hanging tantalisingly behind as well

—— Financial Times

Remarkable capacity to use words to open our ears

—— Sunday Telegraph

This book surveys current thinking and tells you why music rocks

—— Iain Finlayson , The Times

Bestriding with equal ease the very different disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, history and neurology, the author answers com amore the questions posed in the subtitle of this important book. A remarkable achievement.

—— Classic FM Magazine

The author breaks new (to me) ground

—— Sunday Telegraph

As prolific as he is profound, Philip Ball weaves science into culture with a dexterity and virtuosity that avoid any sense of overstretch... Ball can truly make scholarship sing.

—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent

The year's most unusual travel book

—— Tom Chesshyre , The Times

[An] eye-opening and hugely enjoyable book

—— Daily Telegraph

Written in a delectable prose that scatters flashes of poetry over a sardonic undertow of social comment, Edgelands is a lyrical triumph. On Britain’s grotty margins, the duo trace “desire paths” to find beauty and mystery in the rough darkness on the edge of town

—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent

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