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

(Paperback)

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Laughter and tears are never far away in this heart-warming true story of how Edith Cotterill came to be a district nurse - this Number One bestseller will be loved by fans of BBC hit drama Call the Midwife '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 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.

Reviews

Brilliant ... a rare book of truth and insight containing hilarious and soul wrenching stories of patients, hospital practice and colleagues, wartime traumas and post-war austerity. Ending with one of the most tragic and moving stories I have ever read -- Jennifer Worth, bestselling author of CALL THE MIDWIFE
Touching and tender, full of comic but courageous characters, Edith Cotterill's Nurse on Call goes straight to the heart * She *
Ought to provide the perfect antidote to today's bureaucratic National Health Service * Daily Mail *
Heartwarming * Yours *

Author Bio

Edith Cotterill was born in Tipton, Staffordshire, during a Zeppelin raid in 1916. She joined the nursing profession in 1934, working at Standon Orthopaedic Hospital and Margaret General and District Hospital, and married a sailor in the Royal Navy in 1940. After the birth of her two daughters, she returned to nursing as a district nurse back in Tipton. She died in 1997.