Guest post: The Nightingale Christmas Show by Donna Douglas
17 Nov
Today I’m delighted to welcome one of my favourite authors to One More Page to celebrate the release of her lovely new Christmas novel, The Nightingale Christmas Show. Donna Douglas is the Sunday Times bestselling author of the Nightingale novels, set in an East End hospital in 1930s and 1940s. She has recently published the second in the Steeple Street series, about a district nurse in 1920s Yorkshire. A born Londoner, Donna now lives in York with her husband and family. In her spare time she enjoys reading, going out for coffee and cocktails, and binge-watching TV box sets. Welcome Donna!
The Nightingale Christmas Show is my fourth festive Nightingale novel, so this time I thought it might be fun to put together a collection of interlinked short stories all set around a central theme.
It’s Christmas 1945, and the staff of the Nightingale Hospital are putting on a festive show to cheer up the patients. But rehearsals have barely started before the sparks start to fly and old rivalries resurface. Can the nurses overcome the shadows of the past and pull together in time to save the show?
Each story looks at the same event from a different nurse’s viewpoint. There are some new characters, such as chilly Assistant Matron Charlotte Davis and soft-hearted children’s nurse Peggy Atkins. But there are some old favourites too, like ward sister Miriam Trott.
Nightingale fans might know Miriam best as Sister Wren, the lazy, shrewish ward sister who is the scourge of all student nurses. Now she’s taken charge of the Maternity ward, but the prospect of all those festive babies have done nothing to soften her heart. She’s just as mean-spirited as ever, to the patients and nurses alike.
But Miriam is actually a deeply unhappy woman. All she wants is someone to love. So when Frank Tillery comes
into her life, it transforms her. Frank is handsome, charming and rich, just like a hero from one of Miriam’s favourite romance novels. But is he too good to be true..?
You’ll have to read The Nightingale Christmas Show to find out. But it’s fair to say the course of true love doesn’t run too smoothly!
I’ve put it together so that each short story can be enjoyed on its own, but they all link together at the end for a dramatic finale that hopefully will make you laugh – and cry.
I had so much fun writing The Nightingale Christmas Show and I hope you enjoy reading it. Happy Christmas!
Thank you Donna. I loved this installment of the Nightingale series and especially the different format. The Nightingale Christmas Show is a perfect Christmas read for fans of the series or those new to Donna’s books and has all the elements that I look for in a fab historical saga novel; great characters, drama, romance and a gripping storyline!
The Nightingale Christmas Show is out now in paperback and ebook formats.
Find out more about Donna and her writing at: http://donnadouglas.co.uk/
Please do check out the other stops on Donna’s blog tour:
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