A Nurse at War by Maggie Holt

by Maggie Holt

Attractive, clever and wilful, Lily Knowles is desperate to leave home. So at twenty-one she escapes to London to train as a nurse, where she gathers many admirers - none more dashing than RAF officer Sandy Redfern, with whom she falls in love.But the coming of war, with the chaos of the Blitz, brings upheavals and unforeseen entanglements. On hearing of Sandy's reckless affair with a married woman, a heartbroken Lily throws herself into her work. Then further changes in circumstances bring her to a busy RAF hospital in Hampshire, where a faithful childhood sweetheart persuades her to become engaged to him.And then fate brings Sandy Redfern back into her life, physically scarred by burns and inwardly embittered. What of their once passionate love and her present commitment? Can the past ever be recaptured?

Genres: Historical, Historical Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Also wrote under the name Maggie Bennett.

Reviews

[Seamus Mcduff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm. (Scratches cheek in deep thought)


The problem is that in recent times I've read books by some very good writers. Now, I know it's not fair to compare a novel like this to more 'literary' works, but my overall feeling is the standard of writing here is pretty amateurish.


The reason I read this was out of an interest in the time period and the subject matter; from that standpoint, there are some good nuggets of historical detail. Though, on the other hand, from an authorial point of view, some of them are thrown in unnecessarily. But on the whole, I think the level of medical, military and general war research is to be commended.


A big problem is that the book is far too long. If it had been tightened up by decent editing, the book could have been half the length. This shouldn't have been a 500+ page novel. Something that sticks out and irked me was the dialogue. Much of the dialogue is of the "Oh my dear, goodness me!" variety. Basically, many of the conversations are cheesy, cliched and corny. You could make Doritos out of this stuff.


I'm not really sure what sort of market this is aimed at -- perhaps the Romance audience; maybe in this case, none of the above objections really are pertinent. Perhaps the author is giving the readership what it wants, I don't know.


For me, while some of the period detail was interesting, I found the story quite dull (I notice this when my mind keeps wandering), and it was a slog to keep pushing through.


Again, I would really only recommend this to people with a fascination for the war on the home front, nursing, etc.

[Lainy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time taken to read - 3 days on and off

Publisher - Arrow

Pages - 521

Blurb from Goodreads

Attractive, clever and wilful, Lily Knowles is desperate to leave home. So at twenty-one she escapes to London to train as a nurse, where she gathers many admirers - none more dashing than RAF officer Sandy Redfern, with whom she falls in love.

But the coming of war, with the chaos of the Blitz, brings upheavals and unforeseen entanglements. On hearing of Sandy's reckless affair with a married woman, a heartbroken Lily throws herself into her work. Then further changes in circumstances bring her to a busy RAF hospital in Hampshire, where a faithful childhood sweetheart persuades her to become engaged to him.

And then fate brings Sandy Redfern back into her life, physically scarred by burns and inwardly embittered. What of their once passionate love and her present commitment? Can the past ever be recaptured?



My Review

Lily Knowles is our main character, introduced to her in 1924 as a little girl and quickly moving on as she fast approaches her twenty first birthday. Lily wants away from home, the scruffy children, her father and step mother and runs toward her grandparents and a career in nursing. She meets RAF officer Sandy Redfern and finds herself torn between her career and putting Sandy first, particularly now the war is upon them. The tale goes across war time and a chance conversation presents an opportunity to revisit her lost love or finally get some closure.

Ugh, Lily is an infuriating character that I liked and hated in almost equal measures. A selfish young fool of a girl who embarks on a career of nursing, then the war starts and Lily is forced to grow up. She goes through quite a journey of self exploration and growth, the writing draws you in to experience the emotions young Lily endures and has to process.

Not only is this a story of personal growth, love, relationships, families & war, it also delves into some history. I love a book where I learn a little something as well as enjoying the story for what it is, the author has done her homework and details of nursing procedures, medical advances/developments at the time as well as events of war. This was my first time reading this author and I would absolutely read her again, I plan on looking up her other titles, 4/5 for me this time.

[Emmeline Betley · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[L · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maggie Holt's 'A nurse at war' is a truly gripping read that is mesmirisingly captivating from the very first page to the very end, and a book that i took much enjoyment and pleasure from reading. Maggie Holt's writing style has a beautiful fluidity to it and is very truth drawing & exciting that makes you want to read on and find out more, hence the momentum of the storyline & my interest was continued throughout. It is a story that is very character-driven so that you end up following the journey of the main character (Lily) and being swept away with her adventure, that is really interesting and personal. The second world war is the central focus and main theme of this story which adds to the realism and emotion that is already apparent, giving it thus more realism, authenticity and poinancy which is achived primarily through the detailed descriptions of the horrors of the war and a soldiers life. For those readers who enjoy romance novels then this one is an epitimy of a really great one, which is full of heartfelt emotion, loss and longing and the huge mental struggle that the heart & feelings have on ones mind and actions; which is something that i think a lot of people would be able to relate to easily. It is especially easy to relate to and empathise with the main character because she is just so believable and someone who i enjoyed descovering and getting to know throughout this story, which in a way makes it very emotionally personal too. It is a novel that will make you think and ponder over things (including the details that relate to the second world war), it is also a novel that will tug at the heartstrings of human emotion by exporing deeper into the depths of understanding of love and the true meaning of love. This novel is also very correct and one that i found most facinating on explainations of nursing at this time (being that i have several family members within this line of career), and it really does highlight the changes that have been made within the medical profession since then. Hospitals and nursing was so different at that time especially during the war when the staff had to deal with a variety of casulties, that were very horrific & shocking. I was pleased to note that this book did not 'gloss over' some of those details but rather kept it realistic and that Maggie Holt was honest in her writing in explaining what the impact of the war was like on the hospitals and their staff. This novel is very truthful and honest which is so emotive, romantic and authentic and one that highlights how life is not always easy or purfunctorary. It is a tale that many readers will love; for those who enjoy nursing novels, for those who enjoy fiction that is based around the war and also for those readers who enjoy a truly romantic tale that is heartwarming and spine tingling. This book was a really pleasent read that i greatly enjoyed and i would highly recomend that you take a look, as it may not be a 'Birdsong' (Sebastian Faulks) but it still a very poinant tale that you will not forget.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's fine and I enjoyed reading it. But you can almost hear the turning of the pages of the history book that the author has used to reference every detail of the war. The characters somehow were all fully aware of everything that what happening on a global scale and better yet they were anticipating it. Also Lily isn't a very nice person but the author just loves her. "Attractive, cleaver and wilful", this girl is just full of her own self importance and stomps on those who don't meet her inflated expectations.

[Wendy Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A slow starter, and a main character that I don't think I really liked....but, a great story. I wanted it to end differently, but the ending was great. It tied up all of the loose ends, if somewhat abruptly . It also has a lot of history involved (which I love).

[Sarah parry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A*****

I was a bit warey of this book as I usually only read certain authors but this is a Brilliant book would recommend to everyone
Will look forward to reading more from Maggie Holt 👍

[Emma Slaughter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately I found the main character relatively annoying, and pretty much every single decision she made was borne out of a calamity she suddenly faced. It was more a reaction to the situation than a genuine decision in my opinion.

[Jane Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic Book

This book through World War 2 describes how life was for nurses dealing with casualties of war and how they came through it. A wonderful book with some lovely characters.

[Jane hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Friendship during the war

Very easy book to get into and to read about the friendships the characters had between each other during hard times

[Novelle Novels · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
This is a hood war time fiction book.

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story. Good historical research included

[Mrs Turnbull · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book.

I loved the story. Very true to life in the 2nd World War. I loved it. Would recommend this book.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! However the editing was mediocre. The book was too long! As previous reviewer mentioned I sometimes felt like I was reading Judy Garland’s performance of The Wizard of Oz

[Weronika · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit that I liked this book a lot, even though I've read it for so long. My native tongue isn't English, so it was sometimes a little bit hard to get through. I loved the story. It contains many hard subject, characters are well made and I liked the plod. It didn't turned out as I wanted it to be, but it stuck me to the book and urged me to read.
I love that kind of stories, war, romance (but the book wasn't all about affairs which I also enjoyed), friendship, family problems and many more. An interesting thing was also getting to know a little bit about medicine in those days.
At last, I really enjoyed it and I would recommend it.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly enjoyable, bearing in mind that I only bought it because it was reduced and about nursing! It's a lot better than the cover leads one to believe, and quite educational about the second world war. Far from being a simple romance about a nurse in wartime it covers a lot of interesting ground, including the first use of plastic surgery and the early introduction of antibiotics. My eyes even got a little damp reading about the miracle that antibiotics brought to so many at that time.

[Rachel]

I have always been interested in war times and the stories that are based around the second World War, thoroughly enjoyed this novel, would like to expand my comfort zone of romance novels to more historical/fiction novels.

[Francesca Newbold · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lily should have married Tim, dunno what she saw in this stupid Sandy bloke. pffff, disappointed. But aside from that it was a pleasant read.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book once I got through. It was not pulling me into it until I read the first chapter. Too many names thrown in.

[Robin Sparrow]

A Really good story i could not put it down