Anzac Girls

The Extraordinary Story of Our World War I Nurses

De: Peter Rees

Narrado por: Anna McGahan

The harrowing, dramatic and profoundly moving story of the Australian and New Zealand nurses who served in the Great War. Now a major six-part television series.

By the end of the Great War, 45 Australian and New Zealand nurses had died on overseas service and over 200 had been decorated. These were the women who left for war looking for adventure and romance but were soon confronted with challenges for which their civilian lives could never have prepared them. Their strength and dignity were remarkable.

Using diaries and letters, Peter Rees takes us into the hospital camps and the wards, and the tent surgeries on the edge of some of the most horrific battlefronts of human history. But he also allows the friendships and loves of these courageous and compassionate women to shine through and enrich our experience.

Profoundly moving, Anzac Girls is a story of extraordinary courage and humanity shown by a group of women whose contribution to the Anzac legend has barely been recognised in our history. Peter Rees has changed that understanding forever.

©2008 Peter Rees (P)2016 Bolinda

Fantastic book

I listened to this after enjoying the television series so much. This is more documentary, historic narrative interwoven with excerpts from letters and journals. It is not a novel. So it might not be everyone's cup of tea. In fact, I might even suggest watching the television series first, and then listening to this for the background information (and in some cases the true story behind the dramatized version.)

Several people have mentioned not liking the narrator. I did find her voice took a little getting used to, in part because of her accent (I'm American), and in part because her delivery is soft, low, and slow. (I'm also a studio artist and listen while I work, so sometimes lose chunks of a book while concentrating on a process.) I started over three times, and then all of a sudden it clicked and I was fine for the rest of the book. By the end, I thought her voice was one of the audio book's great assets. Somehow by stepping back and not dramatizing with her voice, the drama of the narrative becomes front and center. I give her four stars only to warn people that they may need to work a little at first.

I expect to re-listen to this book at some point in the future. Really excellent.

Not nearly as interesting as the synopsis sounded

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

If the reader had any tone or inflection in her voice instead of deadpan monotone

Has Anzac Girls turned you off from other books in this genre?

Not really

Would you be willing to try another one of Anna McGahan’s performances?

No. Never

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Anzac Girls?

I couldn't focus enough on the scenes due to the dull reading performance.