Homes can be both comforting and troubling places. A timely new book (lead author Professor Paul Crawford, Director of the Centre for Social Futures) proposes a new understanding of Florence Nightingale’s experiences of domestic life and how ideas of home influenced her writings and pioneering work.

 From her childhood homes in Derbyshire and Hampshire, she visited the sick in their cottages. As a young woman, feeling imprisoned at home, she broke free to become a woman of action, bringing home comforts to the soldiers in the Crimean War and advising the British population on the home front how to create healthier, contagion-free homes. Later, she created Nightingale Homes for nursing trainees and acted as mother-in-chief to her extended family of nurses.

These efforts, inspired by her Christian faith and training in human care from religious houses, led to major changes in professional nursing and public health, as Nightingale strove for homely, compassionate care in Britain and around the world.

The book has received rave reviews from Nightingale and nursing experts alike:

Professor Anne-Marie Rafferty CBE, President, Royal College of Nursing:

"This brilliant book deftly uses the device of ‘home’ to interrogate the life and achievements of Florence Nightingale. By doing so it bring a new interpretive lens on the role that ‘home’ played in her reform efforts and breathes new life into this ever fascinating nurse and cultural icon."   

Professor Lynn McDonald (Editor of the Collected Works of FN and the leading scholar worldwide), University of Guelph:

"This book is not only scholarly and accurate but has excellent visuals and is wonderfully readable. The authors use the 'home' theme to present material from the Crimean War and press coverage of it, her faith and the pioneering research she did from her own home post-Crimea."

David Green, Director, Florence Nightingale Museum:

“A fascinating insight into some of the most personal yet valuable areas of Nightingale’s life, this book will be a welcome addition to the library of any Nightingale enthusiast. The unique and timely focus of this book makes for a compelling read. It is book marked by passion and dedication.”

Peter Kay, Owner of Nightingale’s home “Lea Hurst”, Derbyshire:

“This eminently readable and well researched book sheds a fascinating new light on Nightingale’s influences and motivations, seen for the first time through the prism of ‘home’. Nightingale’s legacy provides a valuable guide as we navigate the challenges being faced by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Buy the book here.