Anzac Girls

By: Peter Rees

Narrated by: Anna McGahan

Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

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

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.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful

Disappointed

I am disappointed by this audio book. The narration was poor, Anna McGahan's voice was not unpleasant to listen to but she spoke in a monotonous monotone so that I continually found myself thinking about other things, not listening to what she was saying and losing track of the names and details of the personal mentioned. Due to her delivery I never built up a clear picture of who was who, and what was going on, she made the bravery, fortitude and events detailed in the book everyday and bland even though I was fully aware they were not. Because of her delivery I cannot fully judge if he text would have been better had I read the book rather than listened to it but I feel the nurses and soldiers who's lives were detailed in this book deserved better.

Impressive account of the lives of nurses in WWI

Lest we forget. The incredible efforts of Australian and New Zealand nurses during WWI are described in this book in a chronological way, based upon actual diary entries of nurses and soldiers alike. This brings you really close to the war with its immense losses and sorrows, and gives you a good first hand account of tragedies such as the sinking of the Marquette on 23 October 1915 or the devastation of the Spanish flu in 1918. A must-read for anyone interested in the Great War.