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A Hospital Summer: The heartbreaking story of a World War II nurse
In the summer of 1940, Clare Dillon is a V.A.D. in an English military hospital, nursing the wounded as the bombs fall. "Arguably the best of all writers of hospital fiction." Nursing Times Twenty-year-old Clare must rise to the challenge of nursing in wartime. Whether giving comfort to a dying soldier, or assisting in a birth during an air raid, she has to remain clear-headed and professional. Clare is not only dealing with problems at the hospital. She is also worried for the safety of her brothers, who are both in the forces. Then the Dunkirk evacuation changes her world forever. With the medical emergencies and bombings, it's no wonder Clare doesn't have time to think about the attention she's getting from young medical officer Joe Slaney. But she surprises herself when news about Joe makes her face up to what she really wants for the future. A gripping, bittersweet story about the courage and determination of young V.A.D. nurses in the Second World War. A Hospital Summer is the fifth novel by the bestselling hospital fiction author Lucilla Andrews. For the first time, Lucilla's novels are now available as ebooks. More at www.lucillaandrews.com
217 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1958
41 people are currently reading
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About the author
Lucilla Andrews
85 books9 followersLucilla Matthew Andrews Crichton
aka
Lucilla Andrews, Diana Gordon, Joanna Marcus.
Lucilla Matthew Andrews was born on 20 November 1919 in Suez, Egypt, the third of four children of William Henry Andrews and Lucilla Quero-Bejar. They met in Gibraltar, and married in 1913. Her mother was daughter of a Spanish doctor and descended from the Spanish nobility. Her British father workerd by the Eastern Telegraph Company (later Cable and Wireless) on African and Mediterranean stations until 1932. At the age of three, she was sent to join her older sister at boarding school in Sussex.
She joined the British Red Cross in 1940 and later trained as a nurse at St Thomas' Hospital, London, during World War II. In 1947, she retired and married Dr James Crichton, and she discovered, that he was addicted to drugs. In 1949, soon after their daugther Veronica was born, he was committed to hospital and she returned to nursing and writing. In 1952, she sold her firt romance novel, published in 1954, the same year that her husband died. She specialised in Doctor-Nurse romances, using her personal experience as inspiration, and wrote over thirty-five novels since 1996. In 1969, she decided moved to Edinburgh.
Her daugther read History at Newnham College, Cambridge, and became a journalist and Labour Party communications adviser, before her death from cancer in 2002. In late 2006, Lucilla Andrews' autobiography No Time for Romance became the focus of a posthumous controversy. It has been alleged that the novelist Ian McEwan plagiarized from this work while writing his highly-acclaimed novel, Atonement. McEwan has protested his innocence. She passed away on 3 October 2006. She was a founder member of the Romantic Novelists' Association, which honoured her shortly before her death with a lifetime achievement award.
aka
Lucilla Andrews, Diana Gordon, Joanna Marcus.
Lucilla Matthew Andrews was born on 20 November 1919 in Suez, Egypt, the third of four children of William Henry Andrews and Lucilla Quero-Bejar. They met in Gibraltar, and married in 1913. Her mother was daughter of a Spanish doctor and descended from the Spanish nobility. Her British father workerd by the Eastern Telegraph Company (later Cable and Wireless) on African and Mediterranean stations until 1932. At the age of three, she was sent to join her older sister at boarding school in Sussex.
She joined the British Red Cross in 1940 and later trained as a nurse at St Thomas' Hospital, London, during World War II. In 1947, she retired and married Dr James Crichton, and she discovered, that he was addicted to drugs. In 1949, soon after their daugther Veronica was born, he was committed to hospital and she returned to nursing and writing. In 1952, she sold her firt romance novel, published in 1954, the same year that her husband died. She specialised in Doctor-Nurse romances, using her personal experience as inspiration, and wrote over thirty-five novels since 1996. In 1969, she decided moved to Edinburgh.
Her daugther read History at Newnham College, Cambridge, and became a journalist and Labour Party communications adviser, before her death from cancer in 2002. In late 2006, Lucilla Andrews' autobiography No Time for Romance became the focus of a posthumous controversy. It has been alleged that the novelist Ian McEwan plagiarized from this work while writing his highly-acclaimed novel, Atonement. McEwan has protested his innocence. She passed away on 3 October 2006. She was a founder member of the Romantic Novelists' Association, which honoured her shortly before her death with a lifetime achievement award.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 19, 2021
Well written romance but hero disappears?
Not the best of Lucilla Andrews. She wanted to tell a story of WWII in 1940. Too bad she had to take out the male love interest in the middle of the story. The romance limps to it's end .
Not the best of Lucilla Andrews. She wanted to tell a story of WWII in 1940. Too bad she had to take out the male love interest in the middle of the story. The romance limps to it's end .
September 10, 2015
All the more interesting because the author's own experiences as a VAD are woven into the story.
July 23, 2021
This author's WWII books are, in my opinion, both the best of her hospital books and the hardest to read. I've read quite a few novels set during the war, but she has a way of writing that makes me feel like I'm experiencing it.
September 20, 2024
Any book written by Lucilla Andrews about nursing during and after ww2 gives a very real picture of those times. How scary it must have been, yet how brave these medical people were. There was a little romance but not the main focus of the book.
April 8, 2025
I wish there was an epilogue:(
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews