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In the service of life: The story of Elsie Inglis and the Scottish Women's Hospitals
274 pages, Paperback
First published May 16, 1994
About the author
Leah Leneman
31 books5 followersHer first career was as a stage actress in New York. Leah then wrote Vegan cookery books, before studying at the University of Edinburgh, obtaining a degree in history followed by doctoral research on social life on the Atholl estate in the eighteenth century
Her focus was on women’s history and Scottish history.
Her focus was on women’s history and Scottish history.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 4, 2011
For someone wanting to know all about the Scottish Women’s Hospitals – this is the perfect book. Leneman has written a fair and unbiased account of this wonderful organization. The author charts the start of the organization,the highs and the lows. She also highlights the difficulties faced by the organization having two committees – one in Scotland and one in London, which often created miscommunications and misunderstanding. I found it fascinating too, how quite a few committee members really had no idea what the members faced when dealing for instance with French or Serbian officials, appalling conditions, shortages of supplies, etc. Frequently committee members went to France for instance to check up why “so much money was being spent” on food – jam in particular.
For me Leneman is the ideal person to write this book. If there is a leader of a particular unit who is not keeping all her staff under control – we will know about it. It isn’t whitewashed. The author will often explain the apparent causes whether it be miscommunication or personality clashes and of course it is inevitable with so many women from varying backgrounds, that there will be clashes.
The book contains a lot of details about all the units whether they are in France, Russia, Serbia, Roumania or Greece. She also has time to highlight the major players in each unit. My only criticism would be that she hasn’t included a complete list of all fourteen units and their main locations.
This is a readable and informative book about a little known part of WWI history. Highly recommended.
For me Leneman is the ideal person to write this book. If there is a leader of a particular unit who is not keeping all her staff under control – we will know about it. It isn’t whitewashed. The author will often explain the apparent causes whether it be miscommunication or personality clashes and of course it is inevitable with so many women from varying backgrounds, that there will be clashes.
The book contains a lot of details about all the units whether they are in France, Russia, Serbia, Roumania or Greece. She also has time to highlight the major players in each unit. My only criticism would be that she hasn’t included a complete list of all fourteen units and their main locations.
This is a readable and informative book about a little known part of WWI history. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 of 1 review