Edith Florence "Queenie" Avenell was twenty-five years old when she enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service the day after the Australian and New Zealand forces stormed the beaches of Turkey on that first Anzac Day in 1915. Resigning from her position as matron of the Innisfail Hospital, she set out to do her bit for the war effort by nursing Australian soldiers. The letters she regularly wrote home provide a very personal view of the war and the world of the times through the eyes of a modern, independent young woman.

The book reveals the lives of nurses behind the front...