Nurse On Call: The True Story of a 1950s District Nurse

by Edith Cotterill

'Never had I seen so many fleas! Startled by the daylight, they leapt in all directions, particularly mine. Quickly I peeled off her stockings and threw them on the fire, but by now the fleas had invaded her combinations. As for the fur coat, I shuddered to think ...'

Training in a hospital in the 1930s, Edith Cotterill's long hours on the wards included encouraging leeches to attach to patients (a task much harder than you might think) and the disposal in the furnace of amputated limbs. Although hospital life did have its compensations - it was there during the Second World War an injured sailor who became her husband.

After the birth of their two daughters, Edith returned to work in the 1950s as a district nurse. Whether she was ridding ageing spinsters of fleas or dishing out penicillin and enemas, Edith approached even the most wayward of patients with humour, compassion and warmth.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Medical, Memoir, Biography, Biography Memoir, Nursing

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too much information. Ewwwww! I don't know whether this nurse's patients were particularly yukky, or whether we all end up being rather tacky, but I don't want to read about it.

I also couldn't follow the accents given for most of her patients, so didn't understand what they were saying. At the back of the book after reading it, I found a list of terms translating some of the odder words used, but for goodness sake that should have been at the beginning of the book, not hidden away at the end. The unreadable accents made the book rather choppy and disjointed in places.

On the plus side she sounded a wonderful nurse, and my respect for district nurses soared. They do not have an easy or pleasant job. The book also made me laugh out loud in places. The end of the book was in quite a different vein to the rest of it, and it was deeply moving. The best bit in the book for me though was a poem by her daughter, (age not given), and this I thoroughly enjoyed.

My mother is a district nurse,

But often patients just get worse,

Then when she has gone to bed

Someone comes to say they're dead.

And though it makes my Father shout,

She has to go and lay them out.

Judith Cotterill.


So, the book did contain some excellent passages, but due to the lack of a good editor, all in all I felt it wasn't worth reading.

[Sarah Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting to read about the life of a District Nurse in the 50’s but this was more about the authors life in general. Still an enjoyable read though sad in places.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful hilarious book I am thinking of buying for a friend who is a nurse. Just when I thought about putting it down because of the strange jargon, I decided to stick it out, and boy am I glad. Edith Cotterill is such a good writer, but be prepared, there are some very sad parts in the book which left me in tears. I will treasure this book and will keep it to read in my old age. What a treasure.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed Jennifer Worth's 'Call the Midwife' series, so when I spotted this I picked it up looking for a different perspective on medical care in the 1950s. It isn't clear from what it says on the cover but a large portion of the book actually focuses on Edith's personal life, starting with her childhood and also covering her nursing training and family life. Despite not expecting them I really enjoyed these sections, and actually preferred them to the stories about her 1950s patients.

The patients' stories were interesting, often funny and sometimes sad and I enjoyed reading them, but most were short and presented without any sort of lead in or clear link to the preceding or following stories. Unlike 'Call the Midwife' in which such rapid jumps only occur (as far as I remember) between chapters, these jarring transitions often happen in the middle of a chapter. This gives the book a disjointed feel in places, which is a shame as the material itself all interested me.

As many others have said I also had problems understanding the regional accents as they were depicted. I did spot the glossary before I started reading but not all of the words I wanted to look up were in there, and frequent pauses to look up words (or at least attempt to) added to the disjointed feel of the sections of the book which focused on Edith's black country patients.

Overall I enjoyed the book, and enjoyed learning about nursing training in the 1930s and reading Edith's personal story. The short stories about her district nursing patients were also enjoyable but could have been better integrated with the rest of the narrative.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a nurse myself, I enjoyed reading about life as a trainee nurse in the 1930's and the authors experience of working as a nurse in the community in the 1950's. It provides a fascinating insight into life in a different era, working in a difficult profession against the backdrop of war and the introduction of the NHS.

I found the writing difficult to stomach in places, due the authors insistence of using regional dialect throughout. As a southerner, it was difficult to fully concentrate on her story whilst trying to digest the various phrases and abbreviations used in the area where Cotterill lived and worked. I understand this helped personalise her memoir, however to appeal to the wider masses, it would have helped to tone down some of this writing style.

I would recommend this book to those interested in 'the good old days of nursing' when matron shook fear into the hearts and souls of newly qualified nurses! Or even if you trained in this era yourself, for purely selfish nostalgic reasons, give it a read!

[Liz Harman · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved it when I read it then, read it again this year 2010 when a friend bought it for my birthday, I thought bit's where formilular and then several months later I was clearing out some stuff in the loft and in an old suitcase I found my 1986 copy in hardback. So I've read it twice and enjoyed it both times. I became a District nurse myself in 1980 and most of what Edith wrote about 1950 hadn't changed much, I've just recently retired from District Nursing and basic of visiting peoples homes is much the same but by car, not bike or on foot, mybe sometime on foot, depends on weather and parking in some areas. Great book
And the 1986 - Nurse on Call was published by Century Hutchinson Ltd. not Ebury Press they published the 2010 version I believe

[Cherish · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very good book and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Edith's past life is by far very interesting and I was quite amazed too. These were some elements of humour in this book which made me laugh and some very intriguing parts especially about what nurses used in the past. I almost cried in the last chapter, it was very very moving. Although this was a memoir, I chose to read it for research purposes. It has helped to some extent. I have even did a couple of fan art of this book too which can be seen on my blog. There is another fan art of this book that I will show on my blog, but it will be the last one.

[KD Mackintosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wouldn't want to be sexist but I think this book will definitely appeal more to girls. You become increasingly attached to Edith the more you read and at points it even made me cry and gave me Nightmares about head lice (maybe best forgotten). Also having grown up near the black country where i was set it was interesting to hear about the history of the area from someone who experienced it. Edith is a brilliant writer drawing her audience in and in doing so allowing us to feel what she was going though wether that was humorous or tragic.

[BookAmbler · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are expecting, "The True Story of a 1950s District Nurse", then you may be disappointed as that only represents a small proportion of the book. Having said that, overall, it's an interesting memoir of its time. Some of the advances in medicine (abandoning leaches!) one can be very grateful for!

I didn't get on well with the dialect - I can't hear it as I read it, unlike Scottish patter. Also the glossary is all very well, but most of the words I looked up weren't in it!

Be warned, it has an unexpectedly sad ending!!!

[Soozee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely book, evoking an era long-gone. However, the title is a little misleading, as we don't actually get to hear much of the author's work in the 50s. A lot is devoted to her early life and training, which is fascinating. Some of the timelines jump a little, but the anecdotes are just enthralling. The final story wrenches your heart and was clearly the inspiration to write the book.
Overall a lovely story and well worth a read. The world that she grew up in is long gone, and it's great that books like this are written to preserve that long-lost lifestyle.

[Gaynore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book started off with lots of humour and a great insight into life in Britain between the two world wars. Behind the humour sometimes there was sadness and a horror at the way things were done back then, but overall a very positive, get on with it, attitude to life. Unknowingly an affection for Edith and her family creeps upon you and by the end when tragedy strikes one is caught unawares. A great read about a real person, you can relate to.

[Denita · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is full of stories from Edith Cotterill from when she was a district nurse in the Black Country - West Midlands, England. Edith was born in 1916 in a cellar during a Zepplin raid on Tipton gasworks. She talks about her school days, training to be a nurse, marriage and having her two daughters as well as funny stories about patients she encountered. Finally, she tells about the death of her youngest daughter at the age of 17 in the last chapter of the book entitled Judith.

[What Lynsey Read · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried to persevere with this book as it was a gift, but rather than being 'un-put-downable' I found it a chore to pick up and read. By the time I gave up, about a third of the way in, she still wasn't a district nurse. It was more an Edith Cotterill autobiography than tales of a nurse on call. A random collection of anecdotes from her life, and often dull ones at that. Not for me.

[Kathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book up from an exchange box on holiday, when my kindle ran out of power one day!

This wasn't really my cup of tea, and seem to take forever to read - didn't enjoy the midlands dialect. There was some interesting anecdotes, but I wasn't expecting it to end as it did (won't spoil it for others!)

Wouldn't recommend to friends, but my mum may possibly enjoy it!

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a student nurse, I can fully appreciate the hijinks in this book. She made all the same mistakes that we all do in training, but we just carry on. This book was so much more than her training; it was about her journey through life and through life. At times it was sad but mostly it was funny and a brilliant dedication to her life and her nursing career.

[Vanda Bromwich · Rating 4 out of 5]

The true story of Edith Cotterill a District nurse in the 1950's in the north of England. The book starts with her childhood and her first job working in a kennels, then follows her through her training in the prewar years and the years of WW 2.The story is told with humour and in a very down to earth manner - very readable.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting, but not the book I thought it would be. I expected more about nursing in the '50's. It was more of a memoir of her entire life. Still a decent read, but I don't feel as if I would've "missed something" if I didn't read it.

[Jan Bailey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the autobiography - to middle-age of the author. It has some amusing and sad tales in it, but it was never a laugh-out-loud book for me. It portrays nursing and medicine in a different time, but basic care will never date.

[Astrid Johanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book at a second hand book store because I loved the Call the Midwife serie as well as the tv show. The book is different then Call the Midwife somehow but it is still a interesting read.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I laughed and I cried .... once I got into the rhythm of the book I didn't like to put it down. As a comparatively recent nurse I could totally envisage her patients, have looked after a few I'm sure!

[Yorky Caz · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely lovely book - laugh out loud moments but its all real life stuff and so much of it is so moving - would very much recommend

[Manda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dull couldn't finish this.

[Michelle Green · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just can't get into this book. Some parts made me smile but just not my style :(

[DianaAitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating insight into the life of this 1950's district nurse.

I doubt anyone could read the final chapter without bawling..

[Donna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very slow start but improved towards the end.

[Juliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book couldn't put it Down just loved it - just so sad towards the end.

[Mavis Hewitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

More the story of her part of her life than just focusing on the District nurse side, end had me in tears.

[Squintsquadknittr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would have been better if it was more than about 10% nursing.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was difficult to rate this book because compared to "Yes Sister, No Sister" this booked invoked a lot more emotions for me as a reader (from hilarity to anger and great sadness), but I found that the book could have done with some really good editing or help with it being written better, because parts of it were a bit difficult to follow (who was who etc) yet it is a really interesting piece of social history and was worthy of some better editing or even ghost-writing maybe yet without losing the essence of the author's style.

The funniest bits were as trainee nurse - her sheer nativity had me in stitches: from the Peabody incident, to Matron's breakfast and the egocentric surgeon - nicknamed T'Ogre - incident when he required a "mop" - I was in stitches! The bit that made me angry was when she was used as child labour to look after puppies - no pay, and after a year was malnourished. Being abused by rich upper class - though I felt it was a bit of a theme throughout the book that she didn't always realise how abused she was by her employers, including the health service (what's new - still happening today with medical staff working long hours). The sad parts were the personal losses she suffered, which despite the style of writing were actually related quite well. I found the style of writing came across to me as fast and breezy - I don't know why as I am a slow reader (read at talking pace). It was as though I was sitting at the author's feet listening to her tell me her life story as fast as she could - I don't know why I perceived it like that, but that's how it came across to me as a reader.

I found the Black Country dialect in the book to be fine (though I did have to refer the glossary a few times!) - but then I am from the Midlands and have cousins who come from Bloxwich in Walsall, and as I used to spend my childhood with them I could understand most of it and loved it - its a fascinating dialect. I love regional dialects anyway. Her characterisations of the local people were amusing.

However parts of the book (particularly the last two thirds) I found difficult to follow as one minute you're reading about one thing, the next minute it was something totally different. I felt the book started off being written fairly well, but then from a certain point onward it seemed it was just thrown together - albeit in chronological order.

If it had been better edited/written it would have been 4 or 5 stars. I felt the publisher let her down.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book needed a much better editor than it had. As others have suggested, the Black Country dialect should have been better explained; until I found the Glossary in the back, I thought the author's strange turns of phrase were down to lack of proofreading, and several "amusing" anecdotes went straight over my head as I had no idea what the words used meant. Having said that, the author does have an odd way of putting things, as when she speaks of a road accident victim's blood "trickling wastefully into the nearest drain" as if someone should have been there to scoop it up. Then there are the words that are simply misused, such as something lying "eschew" instead of "askew" (big difference, where was the proofreader?), Yorkshire pudding "precludes" every midday meal (well it would if you ate enough of it, I guess, but she meant it accompanied every meal), and the fact that she had a daughter "without undue promulgation"--I couldn't figure out what that meant, even in context. I could perhaps understand her penchant for assigning nicknames to her colleagues, but the pseudonyms for patients and neighbours (Mr Cutts the Butcher, for example) got a bit silly, and I wondered why she consistently referred to her husband as Gun Layer or GL. Okay, so that was his wartime job when they met, but surely she could have made up a first name for him even if he didn't want her to use his real name? It made me wonder if "Edith Cotterill" was her own real name, given the deed poll episode!

The book seemed to have been written by two different people; the first part, about her childhood and work with a dog breeder, was detailed and well-rounded. However, when she writes of her training years the narration is extremely scrappy; she will often build up a scene and then--nothing. We never hear how it turned out.

It was interesting to see how nursing has changed: marriage meant immediate dismissal; imagine living in hospital dorms just because you worked there! There were apparently "sports days" for the nurses, who competed with nurses from other hospitals for expensive prizes, and the house surgeon carved a Christmas turkey for the patients on each ward. Toward the end, she leans rather heavily on "amusing anecdotes" that sounded familiar from other nurses of my acquaintance, but then she focusses on her daughter's illness and death and all humour vanishes.