Contacts and Contrasts (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781905021093)

Helena Gleichen, Queen Victoria's great-niece and cousin to George V, gives the lie to the belief that Victorian women were meek, submissive and led restricted lives. A passionate horsewoman and successful artist, the autobiographical anecdotes in the earlier part of the book are lively and amusing. The longer second section gives a detailed account of how she and Nina Hollings, her long-term companion and sister of the composer and suffragette Ethel Smyth, raised and manned one of the first mobile X-Ray units to be used by the British in World War I - Marie Curie was organizing the French radiography service - for which they both received numerous decorations. Helena Gleichen paints a vivid picture of the war in Italy, which tends to be little remembered compared to the Western Front, and above all gives an extremely interesting account of how the X-ray Unit was set up and operated, and the considerable impact it had on the treatment and survival rate of the wounded.

Author: Helena Gleichen
ISBN-10: 1905021097
ISBN-13: 9781905021093
Publisher: Mansion Field
Language: English
Published: 01/18/2013
Pages: 394
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.88d