AIBU to ask you to help me find this book?

[tipofmytonguehelp]

Posting here shamelessly for traffic - I'm trying very hard to remember a book I read when I was younger at my grandparents' house... here are the details I can remember:

• British, set in (I would guess) 1940s/50s/60s

• Funny - not serious

• About a young woman who goes to train to be a nurse, possibly either against her family's wishes, or they think she'll be terrible

• Either the protagonist or another character in it was called Dorothea (maybe shortened to Dolly/Dotty?)

• It including drawings/illustrations supposedly drawn by the protagonist (the one I remember best is of her funny nurse's hat, which looked a bit like a pope hat)

• If I had to guess I'd say set in the 50s or 60s

• It might have been told in either diary or letter form

• The main character was clumsy or forgetful and made mistakes

• She meets and makes good friends with another girl training to be a nurse who is ditzy and pretty (this might be Dorothea, rather than the main character)

Is this ringing any bells with anyone? FWIW, I don't think it's the Sue Barton series, Monica Dickens' series, Yes Sister No Sister, or Dorothea's War.

HELP! :)

My immediate thoughts were Fly Fishing by J R Hartley, but on reflection I think it is more fiction.

@Al203

It does sound familiar, any more details? When do you think the book was released?

As I read it in the nineties, any time before that - but I think probably a good couple of decades earlier at least, possibly around the time it was set @Sammi38!

I really think it was in the form of letters to her friends/family at home - she's living in nurses' accommodation and describing it to them, from the uniforms (seem to remember lots of discussion of which level of nurse wears which dress/pinafore/colour, with drawings she's done for them in a cartoon-y style) to what they get up to off-shift. It's all very lighthearted - I don't remember there being any emotional stuff about patients or anything, it was all very much 'oh this is all such a jape'-type vibe.

I also feel like she gets told off by a matron/sister for wearing her uniform wrong/looking scruffy, possibly?

I seem to remember that the friend I mention she makes maybe goes to a party with...doctors? And is trying to marry a doctor/get a boyfriend? It rings a bell that the friend is a bit of a flirt, in a very 1950s sort of way, and a bit ditzy.

I tried googling for epistolary "novels about nurses" @tipofmytonguehelp but couldn't find anything.

This forum might help?
www.goodreads.com/group/show/185-what-s-the-name-of-that-book

• "epistolary novels about nurses"

Cherry Ames?

I don't know but you have just reminded me of the Sue Barton series which I have not thought of since I was a child.

We used to have "Sue Barton: Student Nurse", it used to belong to one of my elder sisters who went on to become a nurse herself so I always wondered if she was a bit inspired by that! I think I read quite a few of the others too.

www.amazon.co.uk/Nurse-Call-Story-1950s-District/dp/0091937566/ref=asc_df_0091937566/?hvlocphy=1007230&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&psc=1&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvadid=310814775587&hvpone&hvlocint&th=1&hvpos=1o1&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=pla-567317473904&hvrand=15440503442686910060

I don't want to send you on a wild-goose chase because I haven't rad the books (!) However, I was thinking of Jane Hope just the other day. I've read several of her other books - about teaching, and parenting small DC (the latter very Mumsnetty ) She also wrote a couple about nursing - Call Me Florence and Leave it to Florence. The ones I've read are light and amusing, as well as illustrated by Jane.

The book above was published in 2010, OP said she read it in the 90’s......

Is it these??

Cherry Ames?Loved those books when I was a kid.

Monica Dickens? One Pair Of Feet (1942).

Cherry Ames?

I think it could be by Evelyn Prentis. She wrote a whole series of books about her life as a nurse from her pre war training right through to her last job as a matron in sheltered accommodation. She was a great writer, very funny but with some sad moments. You can get the whole set on Amazon.

I don’t think it’s Jean Becomes A Nurse by Yvonne Trewin but that’s kind of a British Sue Barton (I loved Sue Barton!)

Could it be Monica Dickens “One pair of Hands”? Not sure how to do the link but if you google it comes up on amazon.

I loved her books, might have to get them out for a re-read!

Was the bit about the scruffy uniform when all the junior nurses were told off by someone senior every time they were in their office because their slips were showing but it turned out to be there was a white piece of wall or paper behind them? That rings a bell....

That was Sue Barton, Sauvignon. I remember Sue wasn’t wearing a slip (scandalising). It was a white lacy curtain or something behind where they were standing that made it look as if their slips were showing

Thank you!!