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Hospital Circles
When Jo Dungarven, third year nurse at St Benedicts, tried to act as match-maker for her aunt and Senior Surgical Officer, Red Leland, her aunt seemed interested―but then Jo found that she herself was becoming involved.
And while hospital gossip linked her name with ‘Old Red’, Jo had to hide her feelings for the patient Bill Francis―Bill, who when close to death had murmured words of love, but on recovery had forgotten her existence.
And while hospital gossip linked her name with ‘Old Red’, Jo had to hide her feelings for the patient Bill Francis―Bill, who when close to death had murmured words of love, but on recovery had forgotten her existence.
- GenresRomance
240 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1967
28 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
About the author
Lucilla Andrews
85 books9 followersLucilla Matthew Andrews Crichton
aka
Lucilla Andrews, Diana Gordon, Joanna Marcus.
Lucilla Matthew Andrews was born on 20 November 1919 in Suez, Egypt, the third of four children of William Henry Andrews and Lucilla Quero-Bejar. They met in Gibraltar, and married in 1913. Her mother was daughter of a Spanish doctor and descended from the Spanish nobility. Her British father workerd by the Eastern Telegraph Company (later Cable and Wireless) on African and Mediterranean stations until 1932. At the age of three, she was sent to join her older sister at boarding school in Sussex.
She joined the British Red Cross in 1940 and later trained as a nurse at St Thomas' Hospital, London, during World War II. In 1947, she retired and married Dr James Crichton, and she discovered, that he was addicted to drugs. In 1949, soon after their daugther Veronica was born, he was committed to hospital and she returned to nursing and writing. In 1952, she sold her firt romance novel, published in 1954, the same year that her husband died. She specialised in Doctor-Nurse romances, using her personal experience as inspiration, and wrote over thirty-five novels since 1996. In 1969, she decided moved to Edinburgh.
Her daugther read History at Newnham College, Cambridge, and became a journalist and Labour Party communications adviser, before her death from cancer in 2002. In late 2006, Lucilla Andrews' autobiography No Time for Romance became the focus of a posthumous controversy. It has been alleged that the novelist Ian McEwan plagiarized from this work while writing his highly-acclaimed novel, Atonement. McEwan has protested his innocence. She passed away on 3 October 2006. She was a founder member of the Romantic Novelists' Association, which honoured her shortly before her death with a lifetime achievement award.
aka
Lucilla Andrews, Diana Gordon, Joanna Marcus.
Lucilla Matthew Andrews was born on 20 November 1919 in Suez, Egypt, the third of four children of William Henry Andrews and Lucilla Quero-Bejar. They met in Gibraltar, and married in 1913. Her mother was daughter of a Spanish doctor and descended from the Spanish nobility. Her British father workerd by the Eastern Telegraph Company (later Cable and Wireless) on African and Mediterranean stations until 1932. At the age of three, she was sent to join her older sister at boarding school in Sussex.
She joined the British Red Cross in 1940 and later trained as a nurse at St Thomas' Hospital, London, during World War II. In 1947, she retired and married Dr James Crichton, and she discovered, that he was addicted to drugs. In 1949, soon after their daugther Veronica was born, he was committed to hospital and she returned to nursing and writing. In 1952, she sold her firt romance novel, published in 1954, the same year that her husband died. She specialised in Doctor-Nurse romances, using her personal experience as inspiration, and wrote over thirty-five novels since 1996. In 1969, she decided moved to Edinburgh.
Her daugther read History at Newnham College, Cambridge, and became a journalist and Labour Party communications adviser, before her death from cancer in 2002. In late 2006, Lucilla Andrews' autobiography No Time for Romance became the focus of a posthumous controversy. It has been alleged that the novelist Ian McEwan plagiarized from this work while writing his highly-acclaimed novel, Atonement. McEwan has protested his innocence. She passed away on 3 October 2006. She was a founder member of the Romantic Novelists' Association, which honoured her shortly before her death with a lifetime achievement award.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 24, 2019
Hmm... Not keen on the whole "Uncle Richard" thing (ew), and the romance is a bit more old-fashioned than I'm used to. (This was first published in 1967, and I found the romance a lot more subtle / subsumed within a larger story than I expected.)
But the characters are sweet and I loved the in-depth look at the life of a ward nurse at a hospital. There's a lot of fascinating medical drama throughout that I enjoyed.
But the characters are sweet and I loved the in-depth look at the life of a ward nurse at a hospital. There's a lot of fascinating medical drama throughout that I enjoyed.
March 22, 2021
Yet another really sweet, delightful Lucilla Andrews doctor-meets-nurse romance which would have been so much better if it had given up on being a romance. Jo, our heroine/narrator, thinks she's in love with a patient for a while, and otherwise just kind of noodles around being a third-year student nurse and having adventures in the hospital; she is convinced that the Senior Surgical Officer (age 36) has a thing for her widowed aunt (age 37) and tries to hook them up.
December 30, 2024
Lucilla Andrews based this hospital romance at St Benedict’s (instead of St Martha’s) where Jo is in the third year of training as a nurse. She fancies herself in love with a patient she “specials” - but soon realises that’s foolish. Then her matchmaking efforts go wrong when she realises she cares for the man she thinks would suit her aunt. The romance element of this story is rather thin - hardly any contact then suddenly confessions of love! So the interest of the book is in the hospital routine, particularly Jo’s stint in the Casualty Unit.
May 8, 2021
The scenes in the accident unit were very interesting; the author is good at creating harrowing scenes with more suggestion than bloody detail. The romance was icky. It isn't the age gap as much as the fact that he talks down to her quite a bit. Not my favorite.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 24, 2020
Incoherent and unconvincing relationship dynamics, ex post facto rationalization of the main characters getting together.
August 4, 2022
A Switched Romance
Nurse Dunvargen is adamant that her aunt Margaret, a widow, should remarry again and picks their old family friend, Robert Leland, the SSO at her hospital, a taciturn, quiet doctor. But Margaret has her own ideas and soon Nurse Dunvargen realizes she has fallen in love with the copper haired surgeon. A terrific romance. I really loved it.
Nurse Dunvargen is adamant that her aunt Margaret, a widow, should remarry again and picks their old family friend, Robert Leland, the SSO at her hospital, a taciturn, quiet doctor. But Margaret has her own ideas and soon Nurse Dunvargen realizes she has fallen in love with the copper haired surgeon. A terrific romance. I really loved it.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews