Dot May Dunn Libri

Dot May Dunn grew up in Derbyshire, the daughter of a miner, during the wartime years. In 1951 she joined the NHS as an early recruit and went on to train as a nurse. Dot's books are full of wonderful anecdotal insight into the life that she has experienced, written with warmth, humour and vivid accounts of her surroundings - from deprivation, health problems and poverty, to personal determination, the surprises faced by midwives and the social history of the pre- and post-war years. Dot draws upon her wealth of experience and shares her life with her readers, provoking both laughter and tears along the way. Centred on Christmas during war-time, this book will focus on community spirit and the sense of coming together and suporting each other, which Dunn captures so well.

In the war-torn slums of a Midland city, young Nurse Compton works as a Midwife. She goes out alone onto the dark, and often inhospitable, streets of the city with nothing more to guide and guard her than her trust in the profession. She is yet to complete her training, and under the guidance of a strict, but experiences, midwife, 12 babies must be delivered, and accurate records of all events must be kept by her if she is to become a midwife. To this end she keeps her case notes. Carrying all essential equipment with her on a trusty, old black bicycle she encounters seedy slums, city brothers, Hitler's bomb sites, post-war council estates, and the genteel hanging on by their teeth.With fortitude, medical, social and sometimes personal knowledge, 12 babies are successfully bought into the world, and families struggle to accommodate the new. The young nurse is often surprised by people, and she meets characters who are not that they seem to be - including her friends. With her "Pupil Midwife Care Book" completed, and experience to spare, she enters the examination room hall, but the unexpected has not finished with her yet.

The heart-warming tale of a wartime childhood.

The compelling and heartwarming story of a young nurse's life and work in 1950s England from the SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author.