The District Nurses of Victory Walk

By: Annie Groves

Narrated by: Alex Tregear

Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

The compelling new best seller from the author of The Mersey Daughter and Winter on the Mersey.

Alice Lake has arrived in London from Liverpool to start her training as a District Nurse, but her journey has been far from easy. Her parents think that she should settle down and get married, but she has already had her heart broken once and isn’t about to make the same mistake again.

Alice and her best friend, Edith, are based in the East End, but before they’ve even got their smart new uniforms on, war breaks out, and Hitler’s bombs are raining down on London.

Alice must learn to keep calm and carry on as she tends to London’s sick and injured, all the time facing her own heartache and misfortune while keeping up the Spirit of the Blitz....

©2018 Annie Groves (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"An engrossing story." (My Weekly)

"A stirring and heartrending family saga... Against a backdrop of change when the suffragette movement was coming to the fore, the choices and dreams of a generation of women combine to create this passionate story." (Liverpool Daily Post)

"Written from the heart." (My Weekly)

Great look at life in the lead up to WW2

I enjoyed this historic novel about the nurses who worked in the gritty areas of London before, during and after WW2.

A great story for nurses

I couldn't stop listening. As a nurse and a historical fiction buff, this book hit the mark. As full of personal interactions and challenges as "Call the Midwife", and much more realistic than the old and totally unrealistic Cherry Ames books that drew me nursing to begin with, this story leaves me wanting to know more about the characters. I want to read the whole series right now! Granted, as a nurse I'd like more descriptions of techniques and treatments, but the lives of the people is what creates the story. I enjoy the narrator also. She does a great job of keeping you in the story without losing track of who is speaking .

A Tale Unended

I loved this book. But I would have liked it to tell the end of the story for Alice , Katie, and Edith.

Interesting slice of London at the beginning of WW

I've always been interested in the homefront both here and in other places (most of the world) affected by the 2nd World War. I also find the work of women at the time interesting. The author brought these girls to life. The story focuses mainly on three young women as nurses in a poor part of London just before and during the first 9 months or so of the war. I'm hoping there will be more in the series. Young women were first making their own way and were quite daring in the eyes of some. Yet most people had great respect for the nurses. If only there was the level of caring in health care today.

The narrator was absolutely lovely and it was easy to keep the characters straight as the girl from Liverpool sounded much different than the Scottish nursing supervisor or the working class people. Was it trememdously deep? No, but it was obvious that the author knew much of what happened in the early days of the war in Britain. It was a delightful weekend read.

I am thrilled to find such excellent books by Annie Groves

I have been a fan of book that encapsulates the lives of nurses during WWII that are set in England. I just discovered author Annie Groves and I just used one of my Audible coupons to purchase the next book in this series. I am plotting my reading and listening for at least the next 6 months.

Really Good Book

I was at a loss of words at the end of this book until I found out it’s the first in a series so I’m pretty stoked about that now. It couldn’t just end like that. This book starts off with two friends getting interviewed to become district nurses in a new town. At the same time, a possible war is brewing and they’re not sure just how bad it may get. Until the papers declare that their country is at war, they are going to meet new people, see what their new town has to offer, and just have some fun. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out during the series. Reading not only how their careers play out but also their friendships and relationships. Will they also have the honor to enlist and provide their services elsewhere or will they feel obligated to continue to care for the less fortunate in their town?

Captivating

Well written and well narrated. Glimpse of a time in history presented with a good story line and cast of characters.

Love And Friendship At The Start Of War

I really enjoyed this story about district nurses at the start of WW2. Enjoyable! Heartwarming!

Just could not get into it. As an RN it just did not appeal as i had wished inin

Just could not get into it. As an RN just did not seem realistic. Darn

A Look at the Role of the District Nurse

This story is set in England in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Alice and Edith are best friends and went to nursing school together. They are assigned as District Nurses to the East End of London at Victory Walk when World War II begins.

The book is well written and researched. The characters are most interesting. The story contains humor, drama and historical information including the state of nursing and medical in 1939-40. The book was easy to read. I am particularly curious about the role of the District Nurses. If you are interested in historical fiction set in London in the early 1940s, this book is for you. I understand that Anne Groves is a pseudonym for Penny Jordon Halsall (1946-2011). Halsall is a well-known British novelist.

The book is eleven hours and eighteen minutes. Alex Tregear does a good job narrating the book. Tregear is a voice actor and audiobook narrator.