The Best Medicine

by Georgie Edwards

"I am one of the old school and believe that a woman’s place is within the home … However, I cannot, I will not, condone unfairness amongst females. I suggest that in due course you send your Matron a letter of thanks. You had after all a most unusual reference."

In 1949, Staff Nurse Georgie Edwards is asked to chaperone medical students undertaking their practical exams when suddenly the penny drops. Georgie wants to learn to diagnose and treat too. Against the odds, she wins herself a place to study medicine at London’s St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and she sets about becoming not a consultant "who sweeps by," but a doctor who listens and cares. Yet Georgie wants to fall in love and start a family as well as have a career—is this one dream too many for a woman in the 1950s? Warm and full of humor, The Best Medicine is Georgie’s fascinating memoir of her early years as a nurse and doctor.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

288 pages, Paperback

First published June 25, 2013

Reviews

[Fiona MacDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another wonderful trip down memory lane. We follow Georgie, who desperately wants to become a doctor, but who first has to train at medical school in the 1940s. Her retelling of her eventual success is charming and sweet, and what I love so much about these books is reading about how wards in hospitals were run, how nurses worked, how patients are tested for different diseases, what their shifts were like and how they managed to have a personal life at the same time. Georgie manages all this with difficulty.

[ECL · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting career of a woman who qualified as a nurse and then as a doctor. Unfortunately, she's not a great writer.

[Beth Chapman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really great story to tell, but written really badly! There were so many disjointed anecdotes and references to what might have been interesting events... that were then completely skipped over. The fact that a woman in the 40's and 50's pursued a medical career in what is still a very male dominated profession is almost totally ignored or avoided. In fact, the author makes it sound as though it wasn't even an obstacle. Some of her musings on balancing career and family life, and the choices made as a result, make the author sound almost disinterested in her own life story.

Probably one of the most poorly written books I've picked up in a very long time, which is a shame because the author obviously had some interesting life experiences.

[Janet Bird · Rating 2 out of 5]

I very much admire this lady and was glad she had a good life, kudos. She fought the attitudes of the time and won. However the writing style was cringe, but that might be just me.