'A dynamic and absorbing account, written in a lively and captivating manner, of a remarkable family and its even more remarkable scion, Florence Nightingale. Gill has used her sources to maximum effect, engaging the reader in a pacy narrative that brings that far distant 'other country', the Victorian age, so vividly to life. I highly recommend it!'
... Read moreAlison Weir, author of Eleanor of Aquitaine 20040804 'A beautifully written and nuanced portrait. Combining meticulous scholarship with a keen understanding of the individual psyche and family dynamics, Gill infuses her subject with rare vitality and untangles the strands of historical, social, and personal forces that determine the course of female life... A fascinating window into one Victorian woman that becomes a lens through which we can view ourselves.'
Susan Hertog, Author of Anne Morrow Lindbergh 20041001 'Gillian Gill's absorbing biography reveals the hidden side of this brave and remarkable woman'
Sunday Express 20040801 'An appropriately unfancy and practically accomplished biography that makes you feel the force of this extraordinary personality'
The Herald 20040901 'This rousing biography recounts the challenges [Nightingale] overcame in order to become history's most famous nurse and an icon of feminine mercy.'
You 20040901 'Altogether, Florence Nightingale comes out of the biography undiminished but far better understood. You could hardly ask much more of a biography'
The Scotsman 20040901 'Gill does honor to her subject while providing a vivid and compellingly readable account of the family whose loyal support was crucial to her achievement.'
Miranda Seymour, New York Times 20040801 'Nightingales brilliantly captures the unique intensity both of individuals and an age. Much more than a biography of a remarkable woman, Gill vividly evokes the complex and fascinating inter-relations of an exceptional family. She engages her reader at every step as we travel with the fiercely intelligent and charismatic Florence Nightingale on her remarkable life journey.'
Anna Beer, author of My Just Desire: The Life of B 20040901 'vigorous and enlightening'
Sunday Telegraph 20040801 'expansive, richly detailed, generous to a fault; Gill's skills may well set a new standard for the novelistic mode of biography... Gill's knowledge of the era is so profound, her judgment so sound, and her narrative voice so cozy that it transforms this saint's life into an enveloping treat that serious readers will delight in plumbing.'
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