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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Loved the book because it was an account of a real person. My daughter is a nurse. I found the stories enlightening, entertaining and some tragic. A very good read.
It gave a realistic view of Scotland. Both positive and not. Made me want to visit her Island.
She kept me wanting to read more.
I loved this book so much! I even baught all the DVDs from the show.
I am a nurse so I enjoy books having to do with nursing and midwifery. I also enjoy books that are non-fiction, but read as a novel. This made me want to visit Scotland.
For me the book was not as engaging as James Herriott’s books but nevertheless it had a similar tone and was a relaxing read.
Great look into the life of a district nurse in isolated northern Scottish islands. Sometimes funny and sometimes sad but always entertaining and informative.
A great read about some wonderful people and places.
Real life on a remote island.
I love learning about people and places. This book was so entertaining. Colorful people and situations.
A different kind of book where people were looked after in a kinder universe.
Not quite as good a read as I had hoped for. The foreign terms were a little hard to get past. I wish the writer would have gone into more detail about how they came to be there and why they left.