The Trouble in Hunter Ward

Josephine Bell

May 2012 · Pan Macmillan

About this ebook

The trouble at St. Edmunds Hospital has not actually begun when Miss Enid Hallet, retired ex-Sister Hallet, is admitted there to Hunter Ward. But it starts soon after the lift door closes behind her, in the baleful face of Joe Wells, the militant hall porter. For Hunter Ward, at the top of the building, is an amenity ward including four pay beds, and the lay staff, striking against supposed privilege, are determined to ensure that all essential services to the top floor come to a halt.

The nursing staff do their best in the ensuing chaos, as the dirty linen piles up in the corridors and relief catering is smuggled in via the fire-escape. Then ex-sister Hallet dies, a death unlamented for several good reasons by various people, but a death for which it is very difficult to offer any satisfactory explanation. And that was only the trouble in Hunter Ward.

About the author

Josephine Bell was born Doris Bell Collier in Manchester, England. Between 1910 and 1916 she studied at Godolphin School, then trained at Newnham College, Cambridge until 1919. At the University College Hospital in London she was granted M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. in 1922, and a M.B. B.S. in 1924.

Bell was a prolific author, writing forty-three novels and numerous uncollected short stories during a forty-five year period.

Many of her short stories appeared in the London Evening Standard. Using her pen name she wrote numerous detective novels beginning in 1936, and she was well-known for her medical mysteries. Her early books featured the fictional character Dr. David Wintringham who worked at Research Hospital in London as a junior assistant physician. She helped found the Crime Writers' Association in 1953 and served as chair during 1959-60.