June Book Review

2 books again in June

Kathleen Clifford was born in 1909. Her family lived in a tiny flat near Paddington Station and her earliest memories were of the smell of horses and the shrill whistle of steam trains. For a girl from the slums there was really only one option once school was over - a life in service. She started work in 1925 as a lowly kitchen maid in the London home of Lady Diana Spencer's family. Here she heard tales of the Earl's propensity for setting fire to himself, as well as enjoying the servants' gossip about who was sleeping with whom. The Spencers were just the first in a line of eccentric families for whom she worked during a career that lasted more than thirty years and took her from a London palace to remote medieval estates. But despite long hours, amorous butlers and mad employers, Kathleen always kept her sense of humour and knew how to have fun. On one occasion she was almost caught in bed with her boyfriend who had to jump out of the window and run down the drive in his underwear to escape the local bobby.

I wanted to read something different so went for this from my large pile of charity shop books!

I enjoyed it but I'm not going to rave about it.

It was a bit slow in places & took me a long time to read even though it's only a slim book!

6/10

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 World War 2 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.

Another disappointing book. It didn't tell you much about being a district nurse or about living in the 1950's. Again I found it slow in places & sometimes didn't even pick it up for days. It gave a lot of details about her growing up before she became a nurse & went in to much detail about working for a dog breeder..... including some stories I didn't want to read!

5/10

July has seen me back on my WW2 romance books :)

Back soon to tell you about my day out yesterday to the Dig For Victory show