When Poppy learns that the love of her life, Freddie de Vere, is to marry someone else, she knows her heart will break. Devastated, she volunteers her nursing skills overseas to take her away from the painful reminders at home. But things are about to get much worse for Poppy. The journey to the hospital in Flanders is full of horrors, and when she arrives it is to find a spiteful ward Sister and unfriendly nurses. Despite her loneliness and homesickness, the dangers of frontline warfare soon make her forget her own troubles and Poppy finds that comfort for a broken heart can be found in the most unexpected places.
Brilliantly researched and inspired by real-life events, big and small, Poppy in the Field is a story about the forgotten bravery of women on the front line, told through the eyes of a young woman determined to play her part.
I have been looking forward to this book since I finished Poppy last year. I've always enjoyed Mary Hooper's book because I know that the history is going to be well researched and interesting and the story is going to be exciting and engaging. This book was no exception.
Poppy in the field picks up straight after where Poppy left off. Poppy has been left devastated. The man she has been seeing has married someone else and she has decided to cope by throwing herself into her work and requested to be sent abroad to work nearer to the frontline to help the soldiers wounded in the war.
I loved the detail given in this book about the work Poppy undertakes as a VAD. I love teaching this period in history and am fascinated by medical history and the role that women played in the war which is often forgotten. This book gives really good insight into all of those things and I really loved it for that.
As well as the historical detail I loved Poppy's story. I won't say too much but when she transfers to France she find things tough but I loved how things worked out. That's not to say things bounce along in a straight forward manner because they certainly don't and I must admit several things that happened left me chocked up in their realism making you really understand the horror of the first world war.
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