Blurb of Florence Nightingale, Avenging Angel by Hugh Small
"Hugh Small's gripping story of Nightingale's
nemesis and redemption goes a long way to rehabilitate her." -
Jane Ridley, The
Spectator
"a masterly piece of historical detective work ... a compelling
psychological portrait" - James le Fanu, Daily Telegraph
The turmoil in Florence Nightingale's life has
made her a controversial figure even today. At the peak of her fame after
returning from the Crimean War, aged thirty seven, she suffered a mental and
physical collapse and took to her bed for ten years. For the rest of her ninety
years she remained a reclusive invalid. Even bedridden, she worked obsessively
for social reform, but her eccentricity and the mystery of her illness have made
it hard to judge her achievements.
Hugh Small has solved the mystery by exposing
a cover-up that has lasted for 140 years. At the end of the war the Government,
in a bid to reduce the influence of the Army High Command, asked Florence
Nightingale to investigate the death of 16,500 soldiers from the effects of
starvation and exposure in the front line. Her investigation backfired when she
found evidence that her hospital had effectively been a death camp. The
Government's neglect of hospital hygiene, not the Army's incompetence, had
caused the soldiers' deaths. Heedless of the effect on her own reputation, she
wanted the Government to publish the evidence to mobilise opinion for public
health reform in Britain. Their refusal led to Nightingale's breakdown and her
symptoms of repressed guilt.
But Florence Nightingale was not defeated. She fought back by leaking a report that showed how the Government had suppressed the truth. She became the leader of the public health movement in Britain, seeing it as a way of avenging the deaths of so many common soldiers. Hugh Small's discoveries show that her contribution to public health after the war was crucial, and that she made use of the most advanced scientific expertise of the day.
"Liberates a formidable woman from dreamy
angelhood, underlining her tragic heroism instead." - Michael
Kerrigan, The Scotsman