02/03/2020
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. (Apr.)
02/21/2020
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
2020-01-20
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.
"Meticulously researched, written with élan and wit, Moore's account comes at just the right time... No Man's Land reminds us that people can rise to an occasion, that the biggest advances — for medicine, for humanity — can come during the toughest times, as a result of the toughest times. It reminds us that great courage and great ingenuity are possible even when the world feels very dark."—New York Times
"An absorbing and powerful narrative of how two determined women used the crisis of war to create an opportunity to accomplish goals that they couldn't achieve in peacetime....Ms. Moore has an eye for detail that brings her story to life."
—Wall Street Journal
"Fascinating, carefully researched... Wendy Moore vividly depicts the convoys of seriously wounded soldiers arriving straight from the battlefields in France in the hospital's courtyard in the middle of the night... Moore is superb at describing the medical advances that resulted in seven research papers by Endell Street doctors being published in The Lancet, among the first ever by women."—The Guardian
"Fascinating"—Times (UK)
"Rarely is a book so important, so timely. Medical journalist and author Moore has written a masterpiece... an unmissable, thrilling read."—London Evening Standard
"Drawing on rich archival material, Moore crafts a compelling history of the challenges faced by women doctors in the early years of the last century... An absorbing history of courage."—Kirkus Reviews
"Crisp, novelistic... Moore narrates with verve and precision."—Publishers Weekly
"No Man's Land is a story of feminist aspirations, bureaucratic hurdles overcome, medical innovation, and unexpected freedoms created in the turbulence of war. It is an important and well written addition to the growing body of forgotten women's history."—Shelf Awareness
"If you're fascinated by today's miracle medicine, this one's for you. This true tale details two pioneering doctors who transformed modern medicine while breaking societal norms during World War I."—Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"Wendy Moore's skill as a writer delivers the story of these women and the history of the war with exceptional power, laying out a compelling combination of casualty statistics and individual human stories."
—New York Journal of Books
"This well researched, well written story makes a strong case for how British suffering during the Great War would have been even worse if not for the heroic female physicians who previously were allowed to operate only on women and children."
—Booklist
"Moore eloquently brings to life the story of the two women who fought for women's rights and set up Endell Street Hospital-nicknamed the Suffragettes' Hospital and staffed entirely by women."—Scientific American
"How can a spectacular story like No Man's Land just disappear? Luckily for us, it fell into the hands of one of our finest biographers. Wendy Moore's rich storyteller's voice has brought back the lives and achievements of these brave and brilliant women."—Andrea Wulf, author of The Invention of Nature
"No Man's Land is an absolute delight. Wendy Moore has performed an incredible feat of historical detective work, and the result is a gripping account of courage and determination in the face of death. It is impossible not to love the 'suffragette surgeons' as they fought for the wounded abroad and for women's rights at home."— Amanda Foreman, author of The Duchess
"Few authors write as colorfully and compellingly about the past as Wendy Moore. In her deft hands, the horrors of the First World War and the heroic efforts of the suffragette surgeons are conjured back to life. Meticulously researched and beautifully executed, No Man's Land is an important book that shows Moore to be the masterful storyteller that she is."—Lindsey Fitzharris, author of The Butchering Art
"The story of the extraordinary women who ran the 'Suffragettes' Hospital' is visceral, timely, urgent, and spellbinding. Wendy Moore's book is utterly involving and deeply thought-provoking, and all I can do is urge you to read it."—Helen Castor, author of She-Wolves
"No Man's Land is an extraordinary story, and beautifully told."—Anita Anand, author of Sophia
Narrator Suzanne Toren has a lovely French accent and is very good at indicating by tone or timing that a passage is in quotes or otherwise emphasized. She narrates the fascinating story of a pair of British suffragist surgeons who ran military hospitals throughout WWI in France and London, staffed entirely by women. The text is occasionally repetitive, perhaps necessarily, as Moore draws heavily on letters and other contemporaneous accounts, and the writers are describing the same phenomena: jaw-droppingly smug misogyny, as the male establishment insisted that women could not do what they were doing daily with astonishing skill and courage; the horrors of Ypres and the Somme; the pandemic of 1919. Toren delivers a penetrating and moving audio experience; the story will haunt you. B.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Narrator Suzanne Toren has a lovely French accent and is very good at indicating by tone or timing that a passage is in quotes or otherwise emphasized. She narrates the fascinating story of a pair of British suffragist surgeons who ran military hospitals throughout WWI in France and London, staffed entirely by women. The text is occasionally repetitive, perhaps necessarily, as Moore draws heavily on letters and other contemporaneous accounts, and the writers are describing the same phenomena: jaw-droppingly smug misogyny, as the male establishment insisted that women could not do what they were doing daily with astonishing skill and courage; the horrors of Ypres and the Somme; the pandemic of 1919. Toren delivers a penetrating and moving audio experience; the story will haunt you. B.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
