When the Nightingale Sang - A Nurse's Life in the 1950s & 1960s

"A burst of nostalgia not just for nurses, but for all lovers of the 1950s and 1960s."

Cynthia O'Neill began her SRN training in 1956 at Hammersmith Hospital, London, at a time when a nurse was not expected to speak unless spoken to, and when nothing was disposable and everything needed scrubbed and sterilised before re-use. Items were always brought on a tray or trolley and more time seemed to be spent by a nurse polishing furniture and bedpans than caring for her patients.

After achieving her SRN, Cynthia went on to do at Queen Charlottes and Thorpe Coombe hospitals In London, followed by Queen's Nurse and Health Visitor training. Upon qualifying in 1961,Cynthia went on to work as a district nurse and midwife in Sussex.

This story is far more than about nursing though. It follows one young woman growing up in the era when rock and roll bursts onto the scene. As she struggles to juggle her career and love life in the days before Women's Lib, a young nurse watches the world go through amazing changes. The peace movement gathers momentum, Martin Luther King dreams of a future of racial harmony, and the first man goes into space. Then Doris Day is knocked off the charts by The Beatles.