Why am I passionate about this?
I’m a historical fiction author and librarian from Hampshire, and I’m passionate about women’s history. I write stories inspired by the lives of real women in the past, who achieved extraordinary things, but whom history has forgotten. My debut novel, Operation Moonlight, won the Penguin Random House First Novel competition in 2019.
Louise's book list on real women who did extraordinary things
Why did Louise love this book?
This incredibly moving novel, set in Dublin in 1918, tells the story of a nurse, Julia, who works in the maternity ward of a hospital.
During the height of the terrible flu epidemic, Julia must risk her own life in order to save the lives of the women under her care. I love learning about the medical world, and the history of women as healers. The story features a real doctor – Dr. Kathleen Lynn – a pioneering medical woman who, along with brave women like Julia, saved lives against all odds.
6 authors picked The Pull of the Stars as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
In Dublin, 1918, a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu is a small world of work, risk, death, and unlooked-for love, in "Donoghue's best novel since Room" (Kirkus Reviews).
In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new Flu are quarantined together. Into Julia's regimented world step two outsiders—Doctor Kathleen Lynn, a rumoured Rebel on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney.
In the darkness and intensity of this…