Call the Nurse: True Stories of a Country Nurse on a Scottish Isle, by Mary J MacLeod
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Call the Nurse: True Stories of a Country Nurse on a Scottish Isle, by Mary J MacLeod
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Tired of the pace and noise of life near London and longing for a better place to raise their young children, Mary J. MacLeod (known to all as Julia) 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 as the island’s district nurse. Call the Nurse is her account of the first enchanted years she and her family spent there, coming to know its folk as both patients and friends.Gaelic fortitude meets a nurse’s compassion in these wonderful true stories from rural Scotland. The remarkable debut of an author now in her eighties, Call the Nurse is a treasure of sweet nostalgia.Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
Call the Nurse: True Stories of a Country Nurse on a Scottish Isle, by Mary J MacLeod- Amazon Sales Rank: #57589 in Books
- Brand: Macleod, Mary J./ Macdonald of Macdonald, Claire, Lady (FRW)
- Published on: 2015-05-05
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.20" h x 1.00" w x 5.50" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 320 pages
From Booklist Being a nurse can be challenging at the best of times, but being a nurse on a remote Scottish island is something else altogether. In this charming memoir, MacLeod recounts her adventures as a nurse in the Hebrides in the 1970s. With MacLeod as a trusty guide, readers are welcomed into the island inhabitants’ crofts with their smoky peat fires. The book feels like a letter from a friend who has an eye for travel writing (despite employing clichéd phrases like “Little did I know” and overusing exclamation points). With a nurse’s no-nonsense manner, MacLeod relays tales of adventure, finding humor and humanity in her experiences but rarely revealing more of herself than necessary. She ably describes the quirks and generosity of the islanders as they face a series of emergencies and celebrate happy occasions. Instead of an overall narrative, this book reads, as the introduction attests, more like looking through a photo album, with a gloss of nostalgia that readers will enjoy. For James Herriot fans, without the animals. --Bridget Thoreson
Review “Julia MacLeod shares unique and enchanting experiences as a nurse in rural Scotland. Her stories will ring true with every nurse—or anyone—who has ever cared for a family or a community, whether in Scotland or America. Call the Nurse is a delightful read.” -- LeAnn Thieman, author Chicken Soup for the Nurse's Soul“Cozy and chatty . . . A lovely account of ordinary people thriving in an extraordinary landscape.”—Kirkus Reviews“The book feels like a letter from a friend who has an eye for travel writing. . . . With a nurse’s no-nonsense manner, MacLeod relays tales of adventure, finding humor and humanity in her experiences. . . . For James Herriot fans, without the animals.”—Booklist“MacLeod proves to be an engaging narrative writer who uses humor and vernacular to her advantage. Should be of interest not only to medical professionals but to all readers who want to escape to a slower way of life.”—Library Journal“This lively and heartening memoir evokes both the hardships and the humour of island life.” —The Scotsman"This charming, bracing reminiscence of life on a remote Hebridean island captures a vanishing world filled with memorable stories and characters. . . . Mary J. MacLeod makes you care, moves you, amuses you, shocks you, teaches you: This is a surprising, satisfying memoir."—Floyd Skloot, author of In the Shadow of Memory and The Wink of the Zenith: The Shaping of a Writer’s Life“Call the Midwife gave [us] . . . the nursing profession in 1950s London. Now, a retired district nurse [gives us] the heartwarming and humorous—yet often shocking—events on a remote Scottish island.”—Sunday Post, UK"A charming tale, packed full with reminiscences, rather in the manner of the recent hit TV series, Call the Midwife. . . . Her tales of joy, trouble, drama, and comedy are warm and humorous, telling of a bygone era."—Westcountry Life, Western Morning News, UK“Julia MacLeod has written a book which encapsulates Hebridean life during some decades past . . . with a sensitivity that reflects her nursing career.”—Lady Claire Macdonald of Macdonald, from her foreword
About the Author Mary J. MacLeod qualified as a nurse in England and has lived in Aden (now Yemen), the United States, Sweden, and Saudi Arabia as well as her husband George’s native Scotland. She is now the author of three books and lives in Ascot in Berkshire, England.
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Most helpful customer reviews
51 of 52 people found the following review helpful. ADVENTURES OF A DISTRICT NURSE IN THE HEBRIDES MAKES FOR LIGHT, BUT FASCINATING, READING By L. C. Henderson The Hebrides, which are two groups of islands lying just off the west coast of mainland Scotland, provide the setting for this charming collection of anecdotal experiences of a country nurse during the 1970s. Throughout the book, MacLeod is so intent on preserving the privacy of the islanders that she refers to the "wild, exposed" island which she and her family made their home by the name "Papavray," so don't try looking it up on any map--you definitely won't find it. Despite her use of such a pseudonym, however, her experiences are made not one whit less real to us, her readers, who readily come to feel part of her innermost circle of friends, so welcome and beguiling is her approach.The delicacy and vibrancy of MacLeod's text resonates with the warmth and passion of the Hebridean islanders among whom she worked. Anyone who has ever lived close to the sea, and who has savored its salt tang on their lips, cannot help but become enthralled by the sensuous wonders of the landscape that she describes in such vivid and glowing terms. Almost at once, one feels close to her, and becomes intimately concerned with her own concerns, as she cycles her way around the island from one patient to another. Her description of the surrounding environs is close to mythical in the poetic cadence of her speech, fringing in its mysteriousness on much loved passages of Daphne du Maurier: "The sky had cleared and the winding road was bright in the moonlight, while the dark waters of small lochs sparkled among the reeds."The appeal of the islands and island life permeates the text, from where MacLeod explains how she, her husband and sundry children decided to abandon the hectic pace in the south of England, together with all its stresses and daily pressures, to become "middle-aged dropouts," living on Papavray, to where they become so enmeshed with island life that they themselves start to seem an integral part of the rural landscape. Despite having to, at first, conduct negotiations for land "through a fog of half-understood cultural differences," they soon warm to the generous hospitality of the island folk, with the latter finding MacLeod's husband's electrical skills and her own nursing ones ever more indispensable. Somewhat akin to James Herriot's experiences in the Yorkshire Dales, the author recounts her experiences with the locals in tones of mixed a/bemusement and respect for their endurance and adaptability to the relatively harsh environment in which they live.The series of adventures upon which the MacLeod family embarks are recounted lovingly and with consummate ease, much of it being in direct speech, so that one feels as though one were there, experiencing the scenes unfolding before one. The pace of Call the Nurse flows smoothly and eloquently through the pages, with the reader becoming ever more engrossed with the ebb and flow of island life. No matter how jaundiced a view of people you might usually, you will not fail to be drawn into admiring the close-knit functioning of human interrelationships in the relative backwater of Papavray and to come to view others around you in a kinder light, aware, but at least a smidgeon more tolerant, of their foibles and failings--such a humanizing effect does this book have on one. Thoroughly recommended for both old and young, next time you have a break and wish to escape the rat race for just a short while, do try reading Call the Nurse--you won't be disappointed.
28 of 28 people found the following review helpful. Living in a world less busy on a remote Scottish island By Scott Neil There can't be many writers who publish their first book aged 80. That is what Mary J MacLeod has done with `Call the Nurse', and her memories of living life as a nurse on a remote Scottish island more than 40 years ago make for a fascinating read.In 1969 Mrs MacLeod and her husband George lived in the south of England. But they had become disillusioned with their way life and all its pressures. They wanted to live a life less cluttered and frantic.They followed their dream and relocated with their young family to one of the remotest parts of the British Isles - the Hebridean islands off of Scotland's northwest coast.It was a world apart from the life they knew. On the island Papavray (the island's true identity is concealed to protect the privacy of those mentioned in the book) indoor toilets were still a luxury, while television was viewed with suspicion and even terror by some of the older residents.Nurse Mrs MacLeod soon became entwined in the lives of the island people, getting to know their stories, their troubles, their joys - and a few secrets - as she and her family found themselves increasingly touched by the warmth of the remote community.By the end of the book, the author refers to the many characters she met half-a-lifetime ago as `the dear, unique people who still live on that remote, rocky island'.In 'Call the Nurse' (published in the UK as `The Island Nurse') Mrs MacLeod takes us on a journey that captures the nuances of island life. It is a touching memoir that traces many stories across the seasons of a year, from births and marriages, to tragedies and deaths. Keeping chapters short and fast-moving, Mrs MacLeod crams a remarkable number of vignettes and incidents into 300-odd pages.In one chapter a window has to be removed to allow a bed-bound patient to be transported to a hospital, while there is a sinister reason behind a mysterious night-time rendezvous at a remote section of shore.There are intricate portraits of her neighbours, and description of the hardships of island life. The author herself experiences some of those trials, including having the steering column of her car break on a remote mountain pass. She returns to her abandoned vehicle hours later to find a concerned islander has fashioned a temporary repair using sticky plasters that holds together until she gets her car home.She joins the crofters one day sheep shearing high on the hillsides, where chatter, stories and jokes are shared, and sandwiches and Thermos drinks are consumed. As the bright afternoon turns to early evening Mrs MacLeod dallies, ensuring she is the last to leave the high vantage point. It gives her the opportunity to observe the village and the crofts far below. She writes: "Gradually, as the peace of the evening settled over the glen, I began to see little plumes of blue smoke rise from the chimneys as folk lit their fires. I listened - even distant voices had stilled, the hill was quiet once more, and I was left in the silent clamour of remembered noise."The author writes in a style that makes you feel you are right there, listening to the conversations as they happen and seeing the events unfold. When Mrs MacLeod turns her thoughts to her surroundings, she shows a talent for descriptive and evocative turns of phrase. The sea is "silver in owl-haunted moonlight", while later in the year, as the evenings draw in, she drives along the island's narrow, uneven roads "between small lochans with the brown peaty water winking at us in the failing light".A dozen or so islanders meet at a tiny croft for a ceilidh of drinking, unsophisticated entertainment, poems, songs, stories, jokes and reminiscing about "times gone by and people long dead'. Mrs MacLeod notes that once the small croft is full of people, and with a big peat fire generating heat in the fireplace, it soon becomes unbearably hot. "It seemed to me that ceilidhs were not ceilidhs unless everyone was perspiring freely by the end of the evening," she writes.Filled with stories that reflect the day-to-day lives of people far removed from the bustle of mainland towns and cities, Mrs MacLeod has impressively reflected the humour, warmth and culture that holds together these distant communities.
28 of 28 people found the following review helpful. Wonderful Book By Peter M. Preble I will have to admit that this is not usually the type of book that I would read but, having said that, I am glad I did. The story take place on one of the Out Hebrides Islands off the Atlantic coast of Scotland in the 1970's and follows the trials and tribulations of a district nurse and her patients. The nurse is not a "native" to the island so she has a bit of getting used to the way things work on the island.The story is an amazing look back at history, and a place that is frozen in time. The residents of this island eek out a living the way it had been done for generations before them by farming and fishing. Most of what they need is available on the island but on occasion, and these are some of the funniest stories in the book, they have to go "off island" to get what they need.My guess would be that the experiences she had "tending to her patients" would be similar to what rural nurses and doctors would have experienced in the United States a generation ago. Sometimes we forget that not everyone has the same access to medical care as those of us who are fortunate to live near a large city. There are many stories of folks needing to go to hospital either by ambulance or by air, and the difficulties that are associated with that. Life is not simple for any of the folks on the islands.The story follows the life of a district nurse and her family, who moves to the island from Southern England and take up residence in a Croft. The author does a fabulous job of telling her story, and there was times, that I could smell the peat fire burning in the distance or feel the cold wind as it was blowing over the island. She has the ability to make you laugh out loud at times and to also weep at the loss of one of her patients.Mary J MacLeod paints a picture of island life that is anything but romantic on one had but beautiful on another. She tells the story of the simple island folk who are always there, any time of the day or night, for each other and willing to do, whatever has to be done, to get things accomplished. This ranges from helping a bull cow that is stuck in the rocks on the beach to plowing the mountain roads in the dead of winter. Everyone gladly helps everyone without any expectation for pay back. I guess this is what was called the simpler times.If you are at all interested in Scotland, the Islands, nursing, or the simple life, or if you just enjoy a good story, this is the book for you. Do yourself a favor and read this book, you will not regret it.
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