Product Description
Price: 12,28 €
(as of Sep 03, 2024 02:55:44 UTC – Details)
INTRODUCED BY LISSA EVANS
‘I envy anyone yet to discover the joy of Monica Dickens. She’s beady eyed, big hearted and blissfully funny’ Nina Stibbe
‘One Pair of Feet is not just a spirited and entertaining account of the training of a hospital nurse in wartime but a fascinating glimpse into a time and a culture so recent and yet so utterly changed’ Marina Lewycka
As the effects of the war raging in Europe begins to be felt at home in London, Monica Dickens decides to do her bit and to pursue a new career, and so enrols as a student nurse at a hospital in rural Hertfordshire. By nature clever and spirited, she struggles to submit to the iron rule of the Matron and Sisters, and is alternately infuriated and charmed by her patients. That’s not to mention the mountains of menial work that are a trainee’s lot. But there are friends among the staff and patients, night-time escapades to dances with dashing army men, and her secret writing project to keep her going.
‘Monica’s naked curiosity and general bolshiness are easy to identify with, and as a narrator she always tells us what we’re longing to know – it’s like listening to a friend’s anecdote, and egging them on’ LISSA EVANS
If you enjoyed One Pair of Feet, you will love the novel that followed it. My Turn to Make the Tea, Monica Dickens’s lively and entertaining novel about life as a cub reporter on a regional newspaper, is also published as a Virago Modern Classic.
Editore : Virago (21 aprile 2022)
Lingua : Inglese
Copertina flessibile : 256 pagine
ISBN-10 : 0349016011
ISBN-13 : 978-0349016016
Peso articolo : 200 g
Dimensioni : 12.6 x 3 x 19.6 cm
Loved this story about her nursing experiences…it goes well with the experiences she had of working as a kitchen maid…very funny and enjoyable story!
I watched a film on TV called ‘The Lamp still burns’ (1943). The opening credits showed that the film was adapted from this book which was written in 1942. Having enjoyed the film I decided to try and obtain a copy of the book and to my surprise, I found that it was still in print; having read it, I can understand why. Written with a wit and economy of style that is redolent of P.G Wodehouse at his best, this is Monica Dickens’ account of her time as a probationary nurse during the middle period of WW2. In turn funny and sad, the book relates the life of a very junior nurse in the most vibrant fashion. The characters that populate the hospital, both staff and patients, are drawn in such a way that they come to life, without the need of flowery verbiage. And the one line put-downs would not be out of place coming from Jeeves himself. ‘Lady Mondsley, who was in hospital for hypochondria’. Although the time is 1941/2, the war is very much in the background, although it is not ignored. Air raids and forces’ dances feature but this is not a book about the war. The film was good but the book is terrific. Her great-grandfather would have been proud.
Well written entertaining and a very good read.
Il remplace mon précédent “Penguin” tellement lu et relu que j’ai perdu beaucoup du pages du livre.Malheureusement j’ai aussi reçu un “Penguin” donc je me suis empressée de scotcher les pages qui commençaient à se décoller !
I don’t think there is a novelist in the world, not even P.G. Wodehouse, who can cheer me up and make me laugh a hundred times at the same thing like Monica Dickens. I have read all of her memoir novels at least twenty times, likely more, and I will read them until I die. My only regret is that there aren’t more of them. I still remember reading these aloud (and not for the first time) with a boyfriend on a long drive and having to pull over because we were laughing too hard to drive. My advice to everyone in the entire world is this: “If you haven’t read Monica Dickens, take ‘One Pair of Feet,’ ‘One Pair of Hands,’ and ‘My Turn to Make the Tea’ into a room with plenty of snacks and a cup of tea and don’t come out until you’re bored with them. Advise your family that they may need to send in a rescue team to forcibly remove you.” If I could give this book a million stars I would. Buy it this moment.