No Man's Land

February 3, 2020
Journalist Moore (The Mesmerist) delivers a crisp, novelistic portrait of the Endell Street Military Hospital, the only WWI British army hospital staffed entirely by women (with the exception of a few male security guards and orderlies), and the two doctors who ran it. Recognizing the opportunity WWI offered for female doctors to prove their worth (they had previously had been limited to treating women and children), Louisa Garrett Anderson, a surgeon whose mother was “the first woman to qualify in Britain as a doctor,” and Flora Murray, a physician and anesthetist, opened an emergency hospital for wounded soldiers in Paris. The success of that venture, as well as fears that hospitals were becoming “dangerously understaffed” as male doctors and medical students entered military service, led to an invitation from the War Office to run a 1,000-bed hospital in London. Committed suffragists and “partners in their private lives” as well as in their work, Anderson and Murray named the hospital’s wards after female saints, performed innovative surgical procedures, and earned acclaim for running the hospital “with both military precision and homey domesticity.” Drawing on diaries, letters, and newspaper accounts, Moore narrates with verve and precision, highlighting the pressures and obstacles these women and their staff faced. Readers interested in medical, military, and women’s histories will savor this sterling account.

February 15, 2020
During World War I, women physicians saw an opportunity to aid the war effort and prove their professional worth. Drawing on rich archival material, including letters and memoirs, London-based journalist Moore crafts a compelling history of the challenges faced by women doctors in the early years of the last century. The author focuses primarily on two indomitable women--surgeon Louisa Garrett Anderson and physician and anesthetist Flora Murray--who both had trained at the London School of Medicine for Women and who became lifelong companions. They, like their colleagues, faced widespread hostility; the British Medical Journal complained that the profession was being "besieged by fair invaders." Nevertheless, determined to set up a hospital for wounded soldiers, the two women raised funds from friends, family, and fellow suffragettes, and many young women came forward eager to serve as doctors, nurses, and orderlies. First establishing a hospital in France, soon their success came to the attention of the British War Office, which invited them to run a 1,000-bed military hospital in a former workhouse on Endell Street in London. Unlike any other British Army hospital, Moore writes, "it would be run solely by women, with an almost entirely female staff." The author's chronicle of the Endell Street hospital highlights the barbarity of the war: In its four and a half years of existence, the hospital treated tens of thousands of patients and performed more than 7,000 surgeries, treating injuries--such as wounds from powerful artillery and high-explosive shells and the horrific effects of chlorine gas--that many physicians had never before seen. Its reputation was stellar despite incredulous reports about a hospital run by "mere women." Many medical schools, facing a dearth of male students, at last opened their doors to women. After the war, though, "women doctors were sidelined again into low-status, low paid jobs" in maternity, child care, asylums, and workhouse infirmaries, and medical schools again barred women; "peace had seemingly brought their value to an end." An absorbing history of courage and carnage.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 21, 2020

In the summer of 1914, British suffragettes did not hesitate to volunteer to serve as doctors, nurses, and orderlies in World War I. They knew the war provided a unique opportunity to gain surgical experience, which would prove women doctors were as good as men. The French Red Cross accepted their offer, and the women, beginning as volunteers, established the Women's Hospital Corps. Journalist Moore (How To Create the Perfect Wife) writes of the fortitude, intelligence, and love of these women, and relates how based on their success in the field in France, the British War Office invited the Women's Hospital Corps to found a major army hospital in London, Endell Street, which became famous for its efficient, caring, and professional medical service. Soon officers from military hospitals throughout Great Britain were visiting Endell Street to learn from the women performing various procedures. VERDICT Moore's story of the Women's Hospital Corps will inspire women with medical careers and anyone who appreciates stories of hardworking heroes.--Beth Dalton, Littleton, CO

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.