Bidspirit auction | In Love and War: Nursing

In Love and War: Nursing Heroes, paperback book by Liz Byrski, 2015. The book acts as a blend of historical documentation and personal reflection. It focuses on the pioneering medical work done during World War II at the Queen Victoria Hospital in the small Sussex town of East Grinstead. The narrative details the revolutionary plastic surgery and therapeutic rehabilitation methods developed by Archibald McIndoe. McIndoe treated Allied airmen who had suffered horrific, disfiguring facial burns during the Battle of Britain. His patient network famously became known as the Guinea Pig Club. As a young child growing up in East Grinstead, Byrski experienced nightmares caused by the sight of the airmen's severely burned faces. In her late sixties, she returned to her childhood hometown to confront those memories. She interviewed surviving veterans, townspeople, and the nursing team who administered the unorthodox, emotionally grueling treatments.