The Life of Florence Nightingale, Volume 1

The first half of the authorised life, carrying Florence Nightingale from her birth in 1820 to 1861. Part one, headed Aspiration, follows the childhood and education of a wealthy family’s daughter, her religious struggle, the refused marriage, a winter in Rome, travel in Egypt and Greece, the nursing apprenticeship at Kaiserswerth in 1851, and the Harley Street post she held until October 1854. Thirteen chapters then cover the Crimean War, and the remaining parts deal with her campaign for army health after 1856 and with hospital design and nurse training. Cook drew on papers Nightingale had directed be destroyed, which passed instead to her cousin Henry Bonham Carter, and supplemented them with War Office records held in the Public Record Office. The portrait is of an administrator and statistician more than a bedside figure.