Mary is a nursing sister at a Lancashire prison camp for the housing and treatment of German POWs. Life at work is difficult but fulfilling; life at home a constant round of arguments&;often prompted by her fly-by-night sister, Ellen, the apple of her short-tempered father's eye. Then Frank turns up at the house one night&;a guard at the camp, he's been watching Mary for weeks&;and won't leave until she agrees to walk out with him. Frank Shuttleworth is a difficult man to love and it's not long before Mary gives him his marching orders. But Shuttleworth won't take no for an answer and the gossips are eager for their next victim, and for the slightest hint of fraternization with the enemy. Suddently, not only Mary's happiness but her very life is threatened by the most dangerous of wartime secrets.
Industry Reviews
In this novel, Mary Howarth is a young nurse living and working near Manchester during the latter part of the Second World War. Her story is unusual because she is a sister on a ward within a heavily guarded German prisoner of war camp. The patients are badly injured German soldiers and the doctors are German prisoners, although they may not have taken part in active fighting. Mary and her colleague Jean have to maintain a caring approach to the young patients despite the ongoing war and the disapproving attitude of family members and people in the community. Marys home life is fraught with problems. Her father is an alcoholic bully who frequently assaults her submissive mother and her brother Tom is incarcerated in prison because he is a conscientious objector. Another brother, Patrick, is a miner who would like to fight in the war and despises those who do not and those who fraternise with the enemy. Her sister Ellen, eighteen years old, is a flighty gadabout who has an American GI boyfriend and causes Mary a lot of anxiety. Guarding the camp are British soldiers, many recovering from war injuries and stress. One of these, Frank, develops a passion for Mary which is at first reciprocated. Into this mix comes Peter, a kind, handsome German doctor who shares with Mary the demanding work of treating severe war injuries. Gradually they form an attachment which cannot be acknowledged because it would be frowned upon by the hospital authorities and, if discovered by her family or neighbours would result in Mary and all her family being ostracised. All these factors play a part in this gripping, occasionally harrowing story of war and love. Judith Barrow has written, with great intensity of emotions, an absorbing saga which charges along, tempting the reader from chapter to chapter. The book is easy to read, having good sized print and well laid out pages. As well as an engrossing tale, there is considerable, well researched detail about life in Britain in the mid-nineteen-forties. Life in a hospital ward at that time is also described convincingly and is a reminder of how life has changed in the past sixty years. Beryl Thomas It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council. Gellir defnyddio'r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru. -- Welsh Books Council
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