The Nightingale Christmas Show by Donna Douglas takes us to London’s East End in November of 1945. The war is finally over, and Matron Kathleen Fox is eager to see the Nightingale restored. It suffered from bombings and they lost some treasured staff members. Kathleen is not sure she is up to the task and is considering a new position in Lancashire. She would dislike seeing the new assistant matron, Charlotte Davis take over her position. Charlotte manages to fault with every ward they visit plus she lacks warmth and empathy. Charlotte is all for efficiency and order. One evening Kathleen and her friend, Violet Tanner enjoy a show at Players Theatre Club and run into Kathleen’s former lover, James Cooper who is accompanied by his wife, Simone. James pays Kathleen a visit the next day and presents her with unexpected proposition. To raise morale in the hospital with the patients and staff, Kathleen decides they will host a Christmas Show. She decides to put Charlotte in charge of the project much to the assistant matron’s dismay. The Christmas Show could just be the boost everyone needs if Charlotte can pull it off.

The Nightingale Christmas Show is written differently from the other novels in the series. The story is told from different characters point-of-view. We get to see how each person views what is happening at the hospital along with what is going on in their life. I found it a little strange and repetitive. We start with one character, go forward a few days and then it switches to a different character and goes back to the beginning (and repeat). While it is a different format, I still enjoyed catching up on the lives of the nurses at the Nightingale. I would have preferred the story told from the third person (my personal preference). However, this did not detract from my enjoyment of the story. I recommend reading the books in the Nightingales series in order. Each book builds upon the previous one in the series. We get to catch up with Kathleen Fox, Peggy Atkins, Miriam Trott, Violet Tanner, Dora Riley and Veronica Hanley (now a ghost who likes to bother Kathleen). The characters are friendly, likeable and well-developed. I have enjoyed following these ladies on their journey as they became nurses and navigated the war. I would have liked to know more about Dora Riley and the other trainees from the earlier books. The Nightingale Christmas Show has a great ending, but it seemed like this was the final book (I hope not). I think it would be great if the author introduced a new set of nursing students to the series and we can follow them on their journey along with our regular characters. I am giving The Nightingale Christmas Show 4 out of 5 stars (I liked it). If you like the show Call the Midwife, then you will appreciate the Nightingale series. The Nightingale Christmas Show is a heartwarming tale that could make a pleasant read during the holiday season. ( )

The Nightingale Christmas Show is the ninth book in the series, following various nurses through their time at the Nightingale Hospital in London’s East End. The series originally followed a group of student nurses in the late 1930s. In the latest book in the series, it’s late 1945 and the Nightingale is slowly beginning to repair itself after the end of World War II. For the staff though, it’s still a tumultuous time.

The story is told from the point of view of different nurses, nearly all of whom we’ve met in previous volumes. Matron Kathleen Fox is undecided as to whether she still has a future at the Nightingale. She’s aware that things aren’t quite what they used to be and delegates her new assistant matron Charlotte to organise a Christmas show for the patients. Matron doesn’t really have her heart in it though and is she consciously setting up Charlotte for failure? Charlotte is a cold fish to the other nurses and people skills are not her thing. Being an outsider too isn’t helping. The Christmas show preparations aren’t getting off to a good start and the staff prefer to look to ward sister Violet for direction. But Violet has her own problems to deal with, as do the student nurses, other sisters and helpers. Love and life are complicating things for the staff, but can they get it together to help the patients out?

I felt that this book read more like a series of interlinked short stories set around the Christmas show. I felt this way as each of the characters has their own problem to deal with which they haven’t revealed to the others and a fair proportion is set away from the setting of the Nightingale. There are also a couple of new to me characters (they may have been introduced already, but I couldn’t remember them!) who didn’t always feel like they added too much to the plot. I felt that reading about the same scenes from different points of view didn’t add too much for me, as the scenes were pretty well described the first time round. Knowing the characters involved, it was easy to predict how they would react.

I’m not sure if there are more stories planned for the series. I missed hearing about some of the favourite ‘originals’, like Dora (she’s around but only rates a few lines). I think it would be great for the series to jump forward a few years and follow a new set of student nurses through their training. Plus, we don’t always need a Christmas book – it doesn’t need to be themed to be fun.

Overall, the story is still heart-warming and it’s a pleasant read for lazy holiday days. I wouldn’t miss out on a Nightingale story, but this wasn’t the strongest for me.

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