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The Nightingale Girls

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The Nightingale Girls

By: Donna Douglas
Narrated by: Penelope Freeman
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About this listen

Three very different girls sign up as trainee nurses at a big London teaching hospital in 1934. Dora leaves her overcrowded, squalid working-class home for a better life. But has she got what it takes to keep up with other, better-educated girls? And will her hated stepfather ever let her go? Helen is born for the job; her brother is a doctor, her all-powerful mother a hospital trustee. But will Helen’s secret misery be her downfall? An aristocratic rebel, Millie’s carefree attitude will find her up in front of Matron again and again. Will she ever care enough to make a nurse? Or will she go back to the glamorous life she was born to? What have they let themselves in for?

©2012 Donna Douglas (P)2013 Soundings Genre Fiction Fiction
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Delightful introduction to the Nightingale nurses. Lives, loves, sorrows and training are all part of the everyday saga of these young nurses prior to WW2. Beautifully narrated by Penelope Freeman, each character is brought to life enabling the reader to fully immerse into the story and picture each girl as she goes about her life. Well worth reading. Highly recommended!

The Nightingale Girls

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I loved this story I laid in bed listening to it night after night. Brilliant

Fabulous

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I really enjoyed listening to this book. The narration was very animated and a joy to listen to
I loved the fact it was based around historical nurse training but focused on the characters and not just the medical side.
Really well written and will look for more in this series

Really well produced

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What did you like most about The Nightingale Girls?

The story had me gripped from posh to poor then all had their places to fill.
Each nurse had their own background story to tell which made interesting listening.
All that glitters is not gold springs to mind.

What other book might you compare The Nightingale Girls to, and why?

a long time ago I read a book about young mothers being sent away to convents to have with babies because they were unmarried, this made me think of the hard times they had.

Which character – as performed by Penelope Freeman – was your favourite?

Dora Doyle isn't so lucky as she wasn't from a wealthy background but she was so good with other people and always ready to help others even when they wasn't nice to her.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Helen stood up to her mother.

Any additional comments?

A good listen it leaves you wanting most the follow on book is called Nightingale Sisters,

Training and life of the original nightingale nurs

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I thought I would give this book a try as couldn’t find anything else to take my fancy at the time. I am so so glad I tried it as it is a fantastic book. The story keeps you hooked and is great from beginning to end. The narrator is brilliant and her range of characters voices and enthusiasm is just as much a pull to carry on listening as the story itself. So all in all I can highly recommend this book. I am now onto the second book in the series and it is just as good and is keeping me gripped too. Am very glad there is a few books in the series to look forward to.

Pleasantly surprised

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