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'Written with sensitivity, with personal anecdotes and illustrations, this is entertaining and inspirational.' (TELEGRAPH & ARGUS )
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'If you're easily shocked, listen to [this book] with the lights on. This excellent, but uncompromising, amalgam of historical documentation, eyewitness accounts, diary entries and letters gives a fresh, often harrowing, perpective of the war.' Who Do You Think You Are? '[This book] shows the nurses were just as heroic as the men whose wounds they tended... Absolutely inspiring.' -- Kati Nicholl Daily Express 'Barbara Flynn narrates with appropriate steeliness, while Sian Thomas gives distinctive voices to the many almost unimaginably brave women who did their damnedest, and more, to care for the wounded in appalling circumstances. It is a most impressive, humbling book.' -- Sue Gaisford INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'Becoming a nurse might seem a tamer wartime option than flying, but its perils were, if anything, greater... This is ultimately an inspiring, rather than depressing, tale.' -- Christina Hardyment THE TIMES 'Tyrer has knitted together the history and the nurses' words most effectively, and the combination of Barbara Flynn as narrator and Sian Thomas performing the words of the women makes for an audio tour de force.' BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE 'A different slant on the horror and heroism of war, Nicola Tyrer's fascinating story about the famous Queen Alexandra army nurses is the best history I've read this year. Great stuff.' -- Sue Arnold GUARDIAN
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Finally a book that tells the story of the remarkable women nurses in WW2. From the first page the reader is immediately transported to the world that these women were part of. From their nursing training to the weird and wonderful details of their uniform.
If you think you know what nurses such as these did in WW2, then think again. The horrors they endured and the terrible situations they found themselves in will shock the reader and leave you with nothing but admiration for their spirit and bravery.
The book has plenty of quotes and paragraphs from the women themselves, and/or diary entries from that time. A few of the women are featured throughout the book, and the reader will find themselves taken vividly back to that time and seeing it all through the nurses' eyes and feeling like you are really getting to know these characters.
A superb book, and a very important book that anyone with an interest in WW2 should read.
If you think you know what nurses such as these did in WW2, then think again. The horrors they endured and the terrible situations they found themselves in will shock the reader and leave you with nothing but admiration for their spirit and bravery.
The book has plenty of quotes and paragraphs from the women themselves, and/or diary entries from that time. A few of the women are featured throughout the book, and the reader will find themselves taken vividly back to that time and seeing it all through the nurses' eyes and feeling like you are really getting to know these characters.
A superb book, and a very important book that anyone with an interest in WW2 should read.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sisters in Arms tells the story of the Queen Alexandra Nursing Corp during WW2. An incredible history of courage, duty, discipline and the great British spirit that was so evident during the war years. The British army nurses, many of them very young women who had hardly ventured out of their own back yard, bravely fulfilled their duty to the wounded and dying soldiers in extreme, often terrifying conditions. The book, through meticulous research and many, original diary entries, reveals the daily trials and tribulations of wartime nursing:
The inconvenience of maintaining a presentable, clean and starched uniform while living under canvas, in the desert, with a ration of 1 pint of water a day.
The desperate attempts to save lives of dying and traumatised young soldiers, many of whom were no more than boys, when equipment was scarce, conditions less than sterile and the number of the dying and wounded far outnumbered the hours and personnel able to care for them.
The horrors of capture, rape and murder by the Japanese.
The terror of the sinking hospital ships.
But despite these dreadful conditions there was an amazing camaraderie, a joy found in simple pleasures - cups of tea feature frequently - and humour (sometimes politically incorrect) - when a friend, getting up from his seat in a bar, falls over because he's forgotten he only has one leg.
Despite exhausting and terrifying conditions, the QAs maintain an incredibly positive attitude...."It's amazing how you can do with nothing, and such a boon when travelling." wrote one young nurse having suffered both shipwreck and capture by the Japanese.
In one unforgettable moment in the book, after a particularly brutal and horrific capture of a British Hospital in Hong Kong, a Japanese Commanding Officer asks of Sister Mary Curie: "Do English women never cry?" To which Sister Curie replied; "Not when they have work to do."
The stiff-upper-lip attitude of the war generation! We wouldn't be here without it!
What incredible women! A fabulous history. An essential read.
The inconvenience of maintaining a presentable, clean and starched uniform while living under canvas, in the desert, with a ration of 1 pint of water a day.
The desperate attempts to save lives of dying and traumatised young soldiers, many of whom were no more than boys, when equipment was scarce, conditions less than sterile and the number of the dying and wounded far outnumbered the hours and personnel able to care for them.
The horrors of capture, rape and murder by the Japanese.
The terror of the sinking hospital ships.
But despite these dreadful conditions there was an amazing camaraderie, a joy found in simple pleasures - cups of tea feature frequently - and humour (sometimes politically incorrect) - when a friend, getting up from his seat in a bar, falls over because he's forgotten he only has one leg.
Despite exhausting and terrifying conditions, the QAs maintain an incredibly positive attitude...."It's amazing how you can do with nothing, and such a boon when travelling." wrote one young nurse having suffered both shipwreck and capture by the Japanese.
In one unforgettable moment in the book, after a particularly brutal and horrific capture of a British Hospital in Hong Kong, a Japanese Commanding Officer asks of Sister Mary Curie: "Do English women never cry?" To which Sister Curie replied; "Not when they have work to do."
The stiff-upper-lip attitude of the war generation! We wouldn't be here without it!
What incredible women! A fabulous history. An essential read.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Very good book. As a retired nurse it was interesting to read how the nurses coped in sometimes dreadful conditions
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great read and true accounting
I came accross this book and with the fervour of some fictional accounts of life in the past now sweeping the TV, I was interested in fnding some actual history of women's life... Read more
Published 3 months ago by rhosymynydd
Good authentic history
I was a QA nursing sister in the 1970s. Some of the stories were familiar to me because they had been told by my colleagues. Others were new. Read more
Published 3 months ago by S. Laythorpe
a wry take on attitudes then and now
I couldn't put this book down. It wasn't just the quiet non-nonsense heroism of the characters. I was also caught up in the subtext which was about how our attitudes have... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Ann Kent
Brings history to life, so moving!
This book was amazing! It wasn't dryly historical like a lot of hgistory books, the first person accounts made it all so real. Read more
Published on 3 Jun 2009 by Ms. J. A. Beer
Ignorance spoils an otherwise good read...
Shame about the failure to mention the contribution of Commonwealth nurses and soldiers, who volunteered (or were drafted) to support the war effort. Read more
Published on 9 May 2009 by Karate Kid
REMARKABLE WOMEN AND THAT STILL DOESN'T SAY ENOUGH.
This book grabbed me from the very first page to the last. I'm not generally an emotional type but their stories made me so. Read more
Published on 4 May 2009 by jayd
Sisters at War
An excellent book. Well written, well edited. A must for those with an interest in military history. Read more
Published on 1 April 2009 by Jf Allen
Truly inspiring
I have just finished reading this amazing book and I am completely in awe of these women. The accounts of these women's experiences during WWII, in particular those in the east,... Read more
Published on 8 Mar 2009 by E. Wilkins
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