Band of Angels: A Novel

In my opinion this was one of those books that offered much but failed to deliver. One could say it was my own fault. Bought upon impulse at an airport emporium on the strength that my 10 kilograms of hand luggage was not actually 10 kilos. I was lured into a book shop to ensure that best value was made of my weight allowance.
Written by an author whose previous book, East of The Sun, I had enjoyed and valued I was intrigued by her ability to write about place.. With a setting of The Crimea, a determined female mixed with a bit of Florence Nightingale along with a relationship dimension the yarn was set to go one of two ways. For me I was disappointed – the denouement was clear almost from the start - yet I did persevere and complete show more it. Why I ask myself? Simply because I was on an airplane and could not manage to extricate my hand luggage from the above head compartment. show less

This promised much but ultimately I was disappointed. It wasn’t the quality of the writing – that was excellent throughout. As in her other novels, Julia Gregson proves up to the task of describing any setting with skill and confidence, and with the depth of detail that makes it believable. She also does a great job of bringing Florence Nightingale to life – quite different from the image I always had of her. We are reminded again and again of the squalid conditions in which wars are fought. I think what I ultimately disliked about the book was the way it moved from place to place, never going back, never revisiting characters we had got to know, always moving on, and that when it reached its ultimate destination the storyline show more felt rushed and not enough time was invested in that final section to make it meaningful. So it’s my least favourite by her so far, but I’m still a fan. show less

When I start to write about Band of Angels by Julia Gregson, I am wondering how could a story with so many interesting elements turn into the rather boring story that I just finished. I did just learn that this book is actually her first book, originally published as The Water Horse so perhaps some of the problems are due to that, but I should have thought a story about Florence Nightingale’s small group of nurses who went to Crimea to nurse the British soldiers in 1854 would have been more interesting than this story proved to be.

The main character, Catherine, disguises herself as a boy, and aided by her childhood friend, joins the drovers and travels from Wales to London. Once in London she was hired for nursing duties at Florence show more Nightingale’s Institute for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen and when a group was put together to go to Crimea, Catherine applied and was accepted. The nurses arrived there ready to go to work, but the doctors and medical officers were appalled at the thought of women nursing the wounded soldiers but eventually Florence Nightingale won out and the nurses were allowed to attend the soldiers. Conditions were terrible, disease rampant and chaos reigned.

This should have been an exciting story but between characters that were undeveloped and a story that seemed to want to focus on a dull romance rather than the actual history left me rather unenthusiastic about this book. I do think the author did her research and I wish she had included more about the actual nursing than she did. show less

After finishing this novel I asked myself, "Why would anyone write a book about the Crimean War?" And I selected this one as holiday reading. It was a dreadfully dreary tale. It chronicles the efforts of Florence Nightingale and her band of angels, nurses who sought to help the wounded in unbelievably dire circumstances. This is not the romanticized version of Florence Nightingale's life I was taught in school. So much loss and sadness was very hard for me the reader to endure. Horses play a central role here. Not as good as East of the Sun.

Julia Gregson won the romantic novel of the year award for her second novel so although I dislike romances, I tackled her debut, The Water Horse. Her writing must have improved in quantum leap between the two books because the kindest way to describe it is ‘indifferent but vaguely interesting in parts’.
Forbidden to see Deio, her true love, young Catherine Carreg flees to London where she finds a position with Florence Nightingale and is soon off to the Crimean. She suffers through dirt, disease and rape but ultimately reunites with her beloved. End of story – please pass the sick bag.

Πάρα πολύ ωραίο βιβλίο. Γραμμένο στο πνεύμα της εποχής στην οποία διαδραματίζεται.
Η Κάθριν, που ουσιαστικά δεν έχει ακόμα γνωρίσει τον εαυτό της και τι μπορεί να αισθανθεί, μετά από ένα συγκλονιστικό γεγονός, αποφασίζει να γίνει γιατρός και να σώζει ζωές. Στην Αγγλία όμως εκείνης της αποχής αυτό απαγορεύεται κι έτσι αποφασίζει να γίνει νοσοκόμα και καταλήγει στην Κριμαία. Τότε πια τα συναισθήματα της show more είναι ξεκάθαρα και εύχεται να το είχε συνειδητοποιήσει νωρίτερα και να μην είχε αφήσει όλο αυτό τον χρόνο να περάσει. show less

An entertaining read, but predictable story. Characters not really true to life. Interesting insight into nursing during the Crimean war though.