Clent Books (Est.1977)
HOARE, Philip SPIKE ISLAND. The Memory of a Military Hospital , London: Fourth Estate, 2001.First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. 1841152935 Book in very good condition, a light thin stain (tea?) inside front and back board. Pasted on the back of Contents page is the review of the book. Dustjacket in very good condition, top spine edge and bottom outer corner edges are very slightly bumped. With 417pp, including Source Notes and Index. With numerous black-and-white illustrations in the text throughout the book, plus map and a plan of the hospital on the endpapers. The Royal Victoria Military Hospital was the biggest hospital ever built, stretching for a quarter-of-a-mile along the banks of Southampton Water at Netley. It was so vast when the Americans took it over in the Second World War, the GIs drove their jeeps down its corridors. It would see the first women serving in the military, trained by Florence Nightingale, the first vaccine for typhoid, tested by Almroth Wright on himself, and the first purpose-built military asylum. Wilfred Owen was there along with thousands of other shell-shocked casualties of the First World War. The author grew up near the hospital, and in the process of telling the hospital's history he deals with his own past, and his relationship to the memory of Netley and its hospital. Growing up in a neighbouring suburb named after an Irish penal colony - the itinerants of 'Spike Island' once considered prime candidates for transportation - he traces the story beneath the tarmac. (Book ref. 7033) £18.00 The payment methods accepted by the seller, Clent Books (Est.1977) , are shown in the right-hand column. |
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