Tired of the pace and noise of life near London and longing for a better place to raise their young children, Mary J. MacLeod and her husband encountered their dream while vacationing on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides. Enthralled by its windswept beauty, they soon were the proud owners of a near-derelict croft house—a farmer’s stone cottage—on “a small acre” of land. Mary assumed duties … duties as the island’s district nurse. Call the Nurse is her account of the enchanted years she and her family spent there, coming to know its folk as both patients and friends.
In anecdotes that are by turns funny, sad, moving, and tragic, she recalls them all, the crofters and their laird, the boatmen and tradesmen, young lovers and forbidding churchmen. Against the old-fashioned island culture and the grandeur of mountain and sea unfold indelible stories: a young woman carried through snow for airlift to the hospital; a rescue by boat; the marriage of a gentle giant and the island beauty; a ghostly encounter; the shocking discovery of a woman in chains; the flames of a heather fire at night; an unexploded bomb from World War II; and the joyful, tipsy celebration of a ceilidh. Gaelic fortitude meets a nurse’s compassion in these wonderful true stories from rural Scotland.
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A charming look at life on a very primitive Hebrides island. I loved every story about the wonderful people who lived there.
I found this an inspirational book to read, a tale of how people lived in simpler, and sometimes harder times. I loved reading of how people were willing to help another in their time of need.
Collection of (true) stories of a nurse in one of the Hebrides islands. Makes the unusual physical space of the islands, and the behaviors of the inhabitants, come to life for the reader.
loved it
This book is a memoir: readable but real, sad, funny, hopeful, tragic. Just good reading.
Love the stories and the characters.
Interesting stories
A wonderful easy to read book. Read it in one sitting. Loved reading about their situations and the problem solving that went with it
Great depiction of the life and times of an isolated community.
Each captor tells it’s own story… so it is easy to read. Put down and read more later!
Pleasant memoir of life as a district nurse on an island in the Hebrides a generation ago. Plesant but slow.
I got this because it said, for lovers of James Herriot. Does not disappoint. I’m halfway through and really liking it!
Outstanding great read.
If you like the show “The Midwife” you’ll love this book
Loved this book. It was so easy to read and I loved her stories. An absolutely charming book about the Scottish islands.
Totally enjoyable
Exactly like the title…Call the Nurse….the nurse being on a rural Scottish island is who everyone calls for various maladies whether physical, mental or emotional.
Would have liked to hear where they all are now.
A little slow for my taste.
Having immersed myself in all things Scots after taking up Scottish Country dancing 20 years ago and even having spent a wee bit of time in the western isles of Scotland, I found this book oddly reminiscent of a life I’ll never experience. Scots are a tough but engaging breed — unique characters both in life and as portrayed by the author.