19th April 2018
This month’s guest is popular author, Cath Cole, whose debut novel, Home from Home, has reached some soaring heights in the charts. Welcome, Cath! Those of us who love a nursing tale, would love to know what was in your mind when you wrote this, your first novel!
Would you start by – briefly – describing the story of Home from Home?
Thank you, Lizzie, for inviting me. Yes, of course! Briefly, the lives of Theresa, Maggie, Jenny, Sarah and Chris are about to change forever as they start their nurse training at The Farnton School of Nursing in May 1966. They soon realise that they have much to learn about life, both on and off the hospital wards. A strong bond is formed as the young women face the challenges presented by families, boyfriends and their nursing responsibilities. Friendships are tested as the young nurses experience the joys and heartbreaks of growing up. But for each of them, for different reasons, the hospitals will become their home from home.
It is said that all fiction is autobiographical. Is Home from Home based on your experiences?
Yes, in that I started my State Registered Nurse (SRN) training in May 1964. I trained at Bolton School of Nursing which is situated in Farnworth. The practical training was between two hospitals one in the same grounds as the School of Nursing – The General. The other in Bolton – The Infirmary. I did not want the location to be readily identifiable as Bolton given that I used real incidents in the narrative, hence the setting is Farnton.
No, in that the five girls are fictitious. Readers ask which character is you. The answer is none. However, each character enjoys at least one social or nursing circumstance related to my personal or nursing experiences.
What is the most significant event in Home from Home and why?
Theresa Booth, the rebel, forms an unlikely bond with Miss Bennet one of the tutors. As her training progresses, against the odds, Theresa proves herself to be a bright, intelligent competent student who has the potential to be a talented nurse. In a heart to heart Miss Bennet recounts a story for her nurse tutor training when a fellow student who “spoke just like Princess Margaret,” told her “you know Bea, considering the way you speak, you really are quite bright.” ‘
The moral of the tale for Nurse Booth is ‘Never be afraid to be yourself, always remember your roots and take strength from them but don’t hesitate to have the courage to move on.’ This is significant for me because a Princess Margaret speak-alike made the comment to me when I was training to be a nurse tutor. The incident in Home from Home is important to me, because no matter what I have achieved I, like Miss Bennet, take strength from remembering my working-class roots.
What did you learn about change and social class when writing this novel?
Change and social class are an underlying premise of Home from Home. The period of the novel 1966-69 in a northern working-class town was a period of change for the student nurses and their families. The Swinging Sixties took a long time to penetrate the home and professional lives of the girls. Their parents, and senior nursing staff, were comfortable with post-war values and attitudes relating to marriage, sex, and social and professional position. While the girls enjoy experiences that widened their personal and social horizons these often conflicted with the adults in their lives Four of the characters change from adolescents to young women, Chris is a mature entrant to nurse training. The achievement of State Registered Nurse training confers a professional qualification on girls who have been denied the experience of university. My SRN training has underpinned my subsequent professional success.
Where did the research for this novel take you?
Back to nursing text books and back to the General and a walk down memory lane. Sadly, the Infirmary, where I was a cadet and staff nurse closed in the early 1990s.
What moments do you like best?
A difficult question. Can I have two? One is when Maggie is sent to fetch a unit of blood from the pathology lab. Her colleague, on nights, tells her a ghost story and then sends her through the deserted hospital and up a spooky side corridor leading to the pathology laboratory past the mortuary and into the blood bank. She is scared yet aware that she needs to return with her valuable cargo of a glass jar containing the life-saving blood intact. The other is during obstetric training when a zealot for breastfeeding of a maternity sister tells the student nurses “There are four types of breasts and they can all do the job….Whoopers, Doopers, Droopers, and Dead Dog’s Ears.” A true incident and one my nursing friends and I enjoy retelling when we get together. It is also a classification my husband uses when we are on holiday and he is people watching on a beach or round a swimming pool.
Thank you, Cath, for a very entertaining author interview!
Home from Home is available from Amazon £1.99 kindle addition. £7.99 paperback
For those who would like to know more, see:
But in brief, Cath Cole had a working-class upbringing in a northern town. She trained as a nurse and health visitor and eventually as a lecturer and nurse tutor. She had a successful career in further education, becoming the principal of a further education college. After rescuing a failing college, she was awarded the OBE. Denied the opportunity of university, nurse training served to give her the key to a professional life as well as the grit and determination to succeed.
She is happily married with a son and two grandchildren. She was awarded a Master of Arts (Creative Writing) from Edge Hill University in 2013. Her first novel Home from Home was published in April 2015. It enjoys four stars on Amazon and has had seventy-four reviews. Cath travels, enjoys the theatre, reads and spends time with family and friends. She has recently been appointed Chair of Trustees for Chorley Football Club Community Trust.
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