Chester Infirmary - Chester
Chester Infirmary
Chester
Caroline Rance, author of the debut histotical and literary novel KILL-GRIEF, to be published by Picnic in March 2009, writes:
‘I chose Chester for my novel where there are wonderful places to picnic, mainly because I already knew the city, and because I could call in to Wirral to see my Grandma and get free food (!). The latter definitely included lots of picnics - I was very lucky. KILL-GRIEF focuses on an 18th-century nurse, Mary Helsall, who is desperate to escape the drudgery of hospital life, from the stench of disease, lecherous surgeon and spiteful Matron. She finds something in common with the hospital porter, Anthony – they both dream of an independent future without anxiety and resentment. In their world, however, the only freedom is temporary – it is provided by gin. While researching 18th-century hospitals, one aspect of the literature stood out – or rather, didn’t. Among pages of detailed and impeccably researched information about medicine, surgery and the relationship between the Enlightenment and the growth of voluntary hospitals, there would often be no more than a sentence or two about nurses. Not very complimentary sentences either. Time and again I read that nurses were all drunk, neglectful slatterns – until, that is, Florence Nightingale came along and turned them into angels overnight. Porters are hardly treated any better - the only thing in Chester Infirmary’s records that relates directly to the plot is a sentence from a Board meeting in April 1756, when the Governors noted that the porter had been dismissed for frequent drunkenness. They sent him on his way with the wages he was owed plus an extra ten shillings, and then that’s it – he fades from history forever. This tiny snapshot from the life of an unknown person inspired the alcohol theme in Kill-Grief, and made me consider how many people have existed without leaving behind even so much as that sentence. Kill-Grief is not their real story, but I hope it acknowledges that they did have a story, however much it’s been forgotten.
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December 17th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
I would like to dissociate myself from this post, which has been adapted from my blog entry and is embarrassingly inappropriate for a site about picnic spots.