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Diana Souhami

Edith Cavell: Nurse, Martyr, Heroine Hardcover – 30 Sept. 2010

by Diana Souhami (Author)

4.6 171 ratings

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Edith Cavell was born on 4th December 1865, daughter of the vicar of Swardeston in Norfolk, and shot in Brussels on 12th October 1915 by the Germans for sheltering British and French soldiers and helping them escape over the Belgian border.

Following a traditional village childhood in 19th century England, Edith worked as a governess in the UK and abroad, before training as a nurse in London in 1895. To Edith, nursing was a duty, a vocation, but above all a service. By 1907, she had travelled most of Europe and become matron of her own hospital in Belgium, where, under her leadership, a ramshackle hospital with few staff and little organization became a model nursing school.

When war broke out, Edith helped soldiers to escape the war by giving them jobs in her hospital, finding clothing and organizing safe passage into Holland. In all, she assisted over two hundred men. When her secret work was discovered, Edith was put on trial and sentenced to death by firing squad. She uttered only 130 words in her defence. A devout Christian, the evening before her death, she asked to be remembered as a nurse, not a hero or a martyr, and prayed to be fit for heaven.

When news of Edith's death reached Britain, army recruitment doubled. After the war, Edith's body was returned to the UK by train and every station through which the coffin passed was crowded with mourners.

Diana Souhami brings one of the Great War's finest heroes to life in this biography of a hardworking, courageous and independent woman.

Print length

432 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Quercus Publishing Plc
Publication date

30 Sept. 2010
Dimensions

20 x 14 x 4 cm
ISBN-10

1849163596
ISBN-13

978-1849163590
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Product description

Review

'Affection and admiration radiate through this biography ... Shattering stuff' Sunday Telegraph.

'an inspirational and humbling read' Daily Express. --Reviews.

From the Inside Flap

Edith Cavell, a vicar's daughter, was born in 1865 in a small Norfolk village into a way of English life that seemed immutable. Aged thirty, she left the constrained life of a governess to 'do something useful, something for people'. She became a pioneering nurse. She trained at the flagship Royal London Hospital at a time when nursing was emerging as a profession rather than, as Florence Nightingale put it, 'just a job of last resort for those too old, too weak, or too drunk to do anything else'.
At the start of the First World War, Edith Cavell was in Brussels as Head Matron of Belgium's first ever training school for nurses. On 20 August 1914 she watched as fifty thousand German soldiers marched into the city. Under German Occupation her life changed from that of the archetypal Victorian matron, to the subversion and concealment of a resistance worker. Despite huge personal risk, she allowed her nursing school to be used as a central safe house for hundreds of allied soldiers, separated from their regiments, who if caught would have been imprisoned or shot.
Edith Cavell nursed their wounds, gave them money, and organised disguises, false papers and guides to get them out of the country. Her resistance network was tracked down by the Germans. Of those arrested she was singled out for execution because she was English. She faced her punishment with a calm and courage that affected all who saw her during her final days.
Diana Souhami draws on extensive archival research in this moving and elegantly written biography. She shows how Edith Cavell's character illuminated the dark era through which she lived and serves as an inspiration in our own times too.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Quercus Publishing Plc; First Edition (30 Sept. 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1849163596
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1849163590
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 20 x 14 x 4 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 536,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 167 in History of Belgium
- 621 in Nursing (Books)
- 723 in World War I Biographies (Books)

Customer reviews:
4.6 171 ratings

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J O MAYNARD

Transformed my view of Edith Cavell

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 May 2014

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Edith Cavell was someone we used to learn about at school, but in a rather vague kind of way: I knew the name and the basic story, but could never take it all that seriously. I think the monument in central London put me off: there's something about it that makes you think "oh yeah?" - something Souhami does actually analyse a bit. Also I'd assumed her execution by the Germans was unquestionably legal if perhaps unwise. I'm not even sure why I decided to purchase and read the book, but I'm glad I did. I was fascinated by all the detail about her nursing career - I knew she'd been at the London Hospital, but not that she'd kept in touch with Eva Luckes (the redoubtable matron) for the rest of her life; hadn't realised she got much of her later experience in Poor Law nursing, nor that she'd made such a huge contribution to introducing modern nursing in Belgium. By about halfway through the book I was already filled with tremendous respect for Cavell as a person. Not easy to write a biography of her, I would guess, as she was obviously such a private person and - I suppose you could say - very last century in her outlook, but I felt Souhami presents her honestly and brings her to life on her own terms. The analysis of the unfairness of the politically driven interrogation and trial is very convincing.

11 people found this helpful

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Bookworm

Best biography

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 June 2012

Verified Purchase

If you only have time for one inspirational read, this is it. I learnt so much about the early days of nursing post-Nightingale and the exceptional contribution of those devoted women who were concerned to raise standards of nursing care in spite of such tough conditions and the absence of antibiotics.

Souhami's book is well-researched and beautifully written, transporting the reader into Cavell's world, which included growing up as a minister's daughter and receiving little education outside home in rural Suffolk, working as a governess abroad and nursing in a fever hospital. Souhami shows insightfully how Cavell's character and experiences of life led her to accept the position of matron in Brussels and to face challenges both in training and recruiting nurses there, improving conditions for patients and responding to requests for care and help during the war. Souhami's detailed account of Cavell's trial leaves one in no doubt of her unjust treatment as an Englishwoman in a war zone, lacking effective legal support, signing documents incorrectly translated and facing a court which always intended to find her guilty. The author demonstrates how her courage in facing the death sentence led to the public perception of her as a patriotic resistance heroine. Cavell's concerns in prison point towards her humility, compassion and faith as a devoted and dutiful daughter and a committed matron to the end.

8 people found this helpful

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posh lady

Incredibly sad

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 June 2014

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This timely biography provided a clear insight of a long co-mmitted nursing life. There is a lot of repetition and so not as satisfactory a read as it might have been. the sadness of Edith's execution was provoked by the cruelty and ineptitude of war. The lack of clarity of the depth and reasoning of Edith was partly the responsibility of the author but mainly arises from her lack of understanding of her background and upbringing. more could also have been given of the state of nursing at the time. In this Cavell was remarkable in her understanding of what patients needed and how she endeavoured to supply. It is sad that the bulk of her papers were destroyed for from them we would have understood the complexity of Cavell and her life and achievements.

One person found this helpful

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Dr. R. G. Henderson

A good story well told ... but

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 May 2017

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A fascinating story of heroism and determination on the one hand and injustice on the other. Sadly I cannot give more than three stars as the author has not done all her research adequately. A bugbear of mine is using "reverend" as a title. It isn't. It is what's called an honorific and so is used in the same way as "the honourable" or "right honourable". Throughout she uses it as a title, referring for example to Edith's father as "reverend Cavell". More correctly she should have called him Mr Cavell or just Frederick. Several other clergymen get the same treatment! She also refers to the Bishop of Durham as Handley Dunelm. Presumably she got this from his signature on a letter. The Bishop of Durham at the time was Handley Moule - a distinguished bible scholar. Bishops of Durham sign themselves "Dunelm" as that is the Latinised form of Durham. He would therefore have signed his letter Handley Dunelm - but that isn't his name!
But I don't want to be too precise. The book is otherwise well written and this is a tale that needs to be more widely known.

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Barbara Knight

Made me proud of my gender

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 January 2014

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Learnt of Edith Cavell at school but the focus was always on her horrific death at the hands of the Germans never on how she came to find herself in such a perilous position.This book redresses the balance as we learn of her childhood and the reasons she chose nursing as a career.Not a saccharine character,self contained someone who expected the highest standards of her junior nurses.However the traits which could make her seem formidable and intractable were what was required when it came to her making the ultimate sacrifice.This book should be on all schools reading list if only to make children aware that Hero's and Heroines are not produced by the "kick of a football" or the winning of an Olympic medal.

7 people found this helpful

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Hamlet

Edith Cavell, Nurse, Martyr, Heroine

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 May 2012

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Edith Cavell - Nurse, martyr, heroine - and incredibly obstinate! This is a powerful read. Although the end is known from the beginning, nonetheless the tension mounts and is maintained throughout. The tight writing presents an amazing, difficult, dedicated woman of deep faith and commitment. She is in Brussels merely doing her job, as she saw it, improving patient care and nursing skills and setting up a new hospital in the desperate, suffering heart of the first World War.

Her sacrifice changed the course of this war and helped to shorten it. Dinah Souhami rightly lionizes Cavell although it never becomes a hagiography - Cavell, warts and all! This is a great though never an easy read, thoroughly recommended.

6 people found this helpful

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linprs

True story - Edith Cavell

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 December 2020

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Purchased for an elderly Aunt who loves to read true stories- not yet read as Christmas present

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Edith Cavell: Nurse, Martyr, Heroine Hardcover – 30 Sept. 2010

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