Nursing Fox
In 1914, 21-year-old student nurse Lucy Paignton-Fox arrives home to her family’s cattle station in Australia’s Northern Territory. Although she is about to start medical school, Lucy announces that she has enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service and will shortly be deployed overseas. Her horrified parents caution her: “But we’re at war. There’ll be shooting. You could be injured or… There’ll be men.” Lucy ignores their admonitions and sails off for nursing service with the Anzacs in France. There she works at several casualty clearing stations close to the front, moving with the makeshift hospitals as they follow the Allies’ advance. Besides providing vital medical assistance to the many wounded, Lucy has the opportunity to befriend other nurses, doctors, and soldiers, in particular Adam, an American pilot.
This war story spanning the four-year duration of WWI is another addition to the accumulation of fiction recounting that terrible time. The writing shows ample evidence of Jim Ditchfield’s extensive research and personal military experience, with detailed descriptions of armaments, troop movements, and both air and ground battle scenes. Scenes involving first aid procedures, especially under heavy bombardment, are particularly well handled and should interest readers of Peter Rees’ 2014 nonfiction book Anzac Girls. Readers will feel as if they are fighting alongside the combatants, working with the medical staff, and flying in vintage biplanes. However, the numerous third-person point of view anecdotes make the storyline feel somewhat disjointed. Also, the incessant descriptions of battles and the nursing of injuries get monotonous. It is not until about the novel’s halfway point, when Lucy and another nurse find themselves in trenches at the front and are forced into hand-to-hand skirmish with the Germans, that the storyline picks up steam and enthralls us up to the unpredictable conclusion.
