Autobiography after 19 novels

Press, 15 April 1978, Page 17

Autobiography after 19 novels

No Time For Romance: an autobiography. By Lucilla Andrews. Harrap. 239 pp and illus. $13.10. With 19 popular novels about hospitals to her credit, Lucilla Andrews has tried her hand at nonfiction. Sub-titled “An autobiographical account of a few moments in British and personal history,” i is principally a record of the author’s nursing experiences in British hospitals during World War 11. As a voluntary aid detachment nurse, ano later as a trainee nurse with the Nightingale Training School of St Thomas’s Hospital, London, she nursed, and came into contact with, many of the wounded, weary men from the war. Notes made by the author “in old exercise books, on the backs of old medical charts, case history sheets, envelopes, and the upturned hems of aprons,” are the basis of this account, and the result is a rare insight into conditions at the time. Several

photographs of Miss Andrews's family, and of war-time scenes are included, but this book is not without its disappointments. Chapter one for instance, which should capture the reader’s interest and encourage him to read on. seems divorced from the -est of the book, launching, as it does, straight into 1945 when the war and the author's general nursing training were ending. The real autobiographical account begins in chapter two, with Miss Andrews’s birth and details of her early life, and the remaining 10 chapters follow in logical sequence. Lucilla Andrews has a wellestablished reputation as the author of novels portraying hospital life, but non-fiction work seems to lack the gusto necessary to hold the reader's attention. That is not to say, however, that those who served in World War II will not find something in it to interest them. — MARGARET BUTLER.