1915: As the war rages on outside, it is the battle within that must be won, through the quiet strength of words. Josie Everley works on board the ill-fated RMS Lusitania, as a library stewardess. When tragedy strikes, Josie washes up in London, finding work as a library assistant at a military hospital in Endell Street. Here, Dr Lucinda Garland and her all-female team of medics provide pioneering treatment for wounded soldiers. The hospital is home to a visionary library, run by a trailblazing librarian – Miss Godson. The library is a sanctuary for soldiers haunted by the horrors of war, where literature is prescribed as medicine, helping to cure the men’s anguish.
Books are in my blood, ink runs in my veins, and when I discovered the true story of the Endell Street Military Hospital library, I knew I had to write this novel. Endell Street Hospital was groundbreaking in so many ways. It was set up in 1915 by Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson and Dr Flora Murray, two pioneering doctors who defied an initially sceptical War Office to establish their own Women’s Hospital Corps.
From the start, their new military hospital had its own library, which was run by two prominent members of the Women Writers’ Suffrage League. The WWSL had been founded in 1908 by Cicely Hamilton and Bessie Hatton, the aim to obtain the franchise on the same terms as men, and its members sought to do this through writing.
Elizabeth Robins, an American actress and writer, was one of the first members of the WWSL, and its first president. The British novelist Beatrice Harraden was another of the organisation’s members and she served as librarian at Endell Street from 1915 until the hospital closed, joined by Elizabeth Robins for the first year or so.
The philosophy of Endell Street library was a reader-led one. The librarians catered for the patients’ requests when it came to their reading matter, rather than to impose their idea of what might be termed ‘improving’ books upon them.
Many men feared having their lack of education or illiteracy exposed, so the librarians would take the time to sit at their bedsides, talking to the wounded soldiers to find out more about their interests and background. In this way, the librarians could make informed recommendations, as well as meet specific requests, and this became a unique opportunity to experience care based on books and reading.
The library was a huge success, and in many ways broke the ground for our modern bibliotherapy today. The art of healing through reading books continues to be a powerful form of therapy, and libraries play a fundamental role in this. What more fitting way to honour libraries than in a book?
The Library of War and Peace is a story of two strong, determined, courageous characters, both of whom are inspired by real women. The first, Edie Lawrence, is a young apprentice journalist and suffragette. Her character is based on the real Dorothy Lawrence, whose incredible exploits during World War One inspired me to write Women of War. The second character, Josie Everley, is drawn largely from my imagination, but also inspired by all the library stewardesses who worked ocean liners like RMS Lusitania.
Miss Gordon the chief librarian in my novel is very loosely based on Beatrice Harraden, who managed the Endell Street Library from 1915 until the end of the War. Dr Lucinda Garland and Dr Flora Murray are inspired by real doctors – Louisa Garrett Anderson and Flora Murray – whose brave achievements spurred me to write ‘Women of War’.
Harry Levinson is wholly from my imagination, although there were freelance war correspondents like him struggling to report the truth from the battlefields, their words censored.
Dorothy Larwrence
Endell Street Military Hospital in London is no more, replaced by flats and shops. But if you keep your eyes peeled, there are clues to its existence still around. As a librarian myself, I absolutely loved the research involved with this novel.
Discovering how the librarians at Endell Street sourced and supplied literature to the patients, and how they applied pioneering bibliotherapy to help heal the soldiers’ mental trauma, was fascinating to me. I use elements of bibliotherapy in my own work, and countless times I’ve experienced firsthand how the right book placed in the right hands at the right time can change someone’s life.
I devoured all the books I could find on the subject of the hospital, the library, and bibliotherapy. Particularly helpful was Wendy Moore’s No Man’s Land – The Trailblazing Women Who Ran Britain’s Most Extraordinary Military Hospital During World War One.
Also useful: Dorothy Lawrence’s memoir: Sapper Dorothy: the only British Woman Soldier in the Royal Engineers 51st Division 79th Tunnelling Co. during the First World War
And Flora Murray’s memoir – Women as Army Surgeons
And Flora Murray’s memoir – Women as Army Surgeons
Louise Morrish
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