“Even amidst the horror of the trenches, friendship will survive . . . Thwarted in her desire to become a doctor like her brother Robert, Pips Maitland rebels against her mother’s wishes that she settle down and raise children.”
“However, when Robert brings home a friend from medical school, Giles Kendall, it seems perhaps Pips might fall in love with an acceptable suitor after all.”
“Moving their unit close to the fighting to offer first aid as quickly as possible puts them all in constant danger. But even amidst the barrage of shelling and gunfire, the unending stream of injured being brought to their post, the love between Pips and Giles survives and blossoms just like the poppies of Flanders fields.
“Robert and Giles offer their services as doctors, and Alice’s brother William joins them as a stretcher bearer. Nothing could have prepared them for the horrific sights they encounter.”
“But the year is 1914 and the future is uncertain. Hearing that her father’s friend, Dr John Hazelwood, is forming a flying ambulance corps to take to the front lines, Pips is determined to become one of its nurses.”
“Philipa, or Pips as she was called, was just too good to be true for me. She could do everything and anything with expertise. Everyone, but everyone, loved her and thought she was wonderful, even the German soldiers in the enemy trenches.”
“William was a conchie who had been tarred and feathered by his own brothers by refusing to join the army to kill people. Instead he became a stretcher bearer at the front and was braver than them”