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Edinburgh Excursion: The heartwarming tale of a district nurse in Scotland
Young nurse Alix Hurst starts district nursing in Edinburgh to escape a broken love affair at St Martha's in London. "Arguably the best of all writers of hospital fiction." Nursing Times Alix shares a flat with two other nurses. Fun-loving Gemmie couldn't be more different from the reserved Catriona. And Alix finds that her Scottish patients and their lives are very different from what she is used to in England. She is often moved by their bravery and pride in the face of life and death situations. After an emergency home birth, Alix gets close to registrar Robert Ross. But she wonders if their feelings for each other are genuine. And what of the nurses' mysterious landlord, Dr Charles Linsey? Why does his attitude towards Alix suddenly change? Could the beautiful Josephine Astley be the cause? A heart-warming romance set in early 1970s Edinburgh, with all of the trademark sensitivity and realism of a medical story by Lucilla Andrews. Edinburgh Excursion is the sixteenth 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 Perfect for fans of Donna Douglas and her Nightingales series, Jean Fullerton, Maggie Hope and Nadine Dorries.
- GenresRomance
199 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 1970
29 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
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 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 2, 2021
I enjoyed this one because the heroine and her friends were district nurses instead of in a hospital. I also love Edinburgh, and the city is in many ways a character in the story. The characters the heroine interacts with during her nursing are also interesting. But the 70s just sound ridiculous in this book, and when the heroine complains about the tweeds the hero is wearing but then likes his polyester suit, I was grateful that we got over 70s fashion.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 30, 2020
One of the things I really appreciate about Andrews is her sense of time - this book very definitely takes place in the 1970's. Her characterizations are deftly drawn but the flood of revelations at the end felt like a lot and were kind of dissatisfying; I also wasn't particularly attached to the hero of the book, who was a far more traditional romance hero than Andrews' heroes usually are.
January 24, 2020
It's a pain in the bum when an author has a bee in her bonnet - here about how the sexual revolution is a Bad Thing and her heroine is too smart to fall for it - and is more interested in banging on about that than in her story.
February 2, 2024
Alix has moved to Edinburgh to train as a district nurse and although this is a romance, it includes details of her rounds and the patients she tends to. The romance aspect of the book is less convincing but the misunderstandings and outcome are typical of Lucilla Andrew’s writing.
October 28, 2022
A Dull Romance in Edinburgh
2nd time I am reading this and finding it a bit of a slog. Too many patients without the fascinating details of working in a hospital and too long to wait for the man to make the first move.
Nurse Alix takes on being a district nurse in Edinburgh together with 3 other girls. They live in a rented flat in a house with the landlord, Dr Charles Linsey living on the top floor. Needless to say, they become more than neighbors but don't fall in love too quickly so that Lucilla Andrews can take her time talking about her many cases.
2nd time I am reading this and finding it a bit of a slog. Too many patients without the fascinating details of working in a hospital and too long to wait for the man to make the first move.
Nurse Alix takes on being a district nurse in Edinburgh together with 3 other girls. They live in a rented flat in a house with the landlord, Dr Charles Linsey living on the top floor. Needless to say, they become more than neighbors but don't fall in love too quickly so that Lucilla Andrews can take her time talking about her many cases.
March 19, 2012
Hospital drama and pretty dated with it.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews