THIS essentially readable book about the enduring courage of two pioneering women doctors is a serious contribution to the ever-growing and important canon of social history of World War One.
As with all good biographies, the stories describing the lives of Louisa Garrett Anderson and Flora Murray are drawn from a rich context propelling the reader into complete absorption of every chapter.
Not only is the book packed full of insightful commentaries and breath-taking anecdotes, Endell Street offers us the full facts about medical practices, both good and bad, available to those wounded in battle. For example, a German shell in trench warfare shattered into the body and made surgery a complicated and painstaking process leaving the patient susceptible to sepsis, whereas a bullet from a rifle from the Boer War left a neat hole and was easier to treat.
