The military hospital that was set up in the Town Hall in Torquay at the beginning of the First World War was one of the largest in the country. The climate in Torquay was thought to be particularly suitable for convalescing soldiers and there were a number of other hospitals in the town. The hospital is mentioned in Chapter 10 of Barefoot on the Cobbles as Daisy’s friend Winnie has been working there as a VAD nurse. Unlikely though they may sound, Winnie’s experiences, that are described on pages 200-201, are based on the memoirs of a real volunteer at the hospital. Although family information suggests that Daisy nursed whilst she was in Torquay, there is no record of her having been attached to the Red Cross as a VAD, in the Town Hall Hospital or elsewhere. I have therefore given her a slightly different role.

More information about the wartime work of the Red Cross volunteers and the auxiliary hospitals that they manned, can be found on the British Red Cross website.

‘ ‘What’s so bad at the hospital?’ asked Daisy. ‘I mean, I know that the men are fearfully wounded and that …. and that some of them …  well, some of them don’t get better. But surely it is wonderful to be part of it all? I feel so useless. There’s all the men risking their lives, off to war and all I can do is polish the brass and empty chamber pots.’ ’

Barefoot on the Cobbles will be published on 17 November 2018. More information about the novel can be found here. Copies will be available at various events in the weeks following the launch or can be pre-ordered from Blue Poppy Publishing or the author.