ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Women of War by Louise Morrish
Women of War by Louise Morrish is published by Penguin Michael Joseph and is out now. I purchased my own copy of the book.
I was a big fan of Louise’s first book, Operation Moonlight – review here. A new book, The Library of War and Peace will be published in April 2026 and I’m really looking forward to reading it.
Edie Lawrence has never been one to play by the rules.
As war in Europe is declared, she disguises herself as a soldier and enlists with a London regiment, with the aim of becoming the first woman to report from the battlefield. But also where she can catch news of her beloved Nate, who has already been sent to the Front.Dr Lucinda Garland volunteers her medical services to the War Office.
But her offer is met with rejection. Undeterred, she works with the French Red Cross to create a pioneering all-female-run military hospital in Paris.
As Lucinda struggles to cope with the horrific injuries that flood her hospital, she finds herself losing her heart to someone unexpected.
And when Edie is injured and her gender revealed on Lucinda’s operating table, the fates of these brave women, each determined to do whatever they can for their country, but also for womankind, intertwine in ways that neither of them could ever have foreseen.
Women of War tells the story of two remarkable women and their experiences in WWI. Edie Lawrence is a young suffragette and when war breaks out and she finds herself left with nothing, she decides to pursue her dream of being a journalist by dressing as a man and joining up as a soldier. When she is injured she is sent to a hospital set up by Dr Lucinda Garland who is in charge of a mostly female team. After her plans to set up a hospital in London were rejected by men who couldn’t countenance the idea of a female doctor, she works with the Red Cross in France to offer her invaluable services there instead.
From beginning to end this is a story of plucky women metaphorically sticking two fingers up to anyone (any man) that says they can’t do something. The action all takes place over a few short months between August and December 1914 and portrays in all its horrors the hell of the First World War. Edie’s war is devastating – as soldiers returning from the front say to her, it’s basically a massacre. Lucinda and her colleagues deal with the fallout and the shocking injuries which are like nothing they have seen before.
The leading female characters are based on real women and their courageous feats. Louise Morrish brings them to life in Women of War in alternating chapters from both Edie and Lucinda’s points of view. I found this to be an extremely engaging, heart-rending work of historical fiction, impeccably researched and so well-written.
Louise Morrish is a Librarian whose debut novel won the 2019 Penguin Random House First Novel Competition. She finds inspiration for her stories in the real-life adventures of women in the past, whom history has forgotten. She lives in Hampshire with her family.