“Thoroughly engaging.”
Sunday Times, Books of the Year
“Gripping, unusual, moving.”
Times, Books of the Year
“An irresistible little byway in 18th-century medical and social history.”
Oldie
“A scintillating portrait of Barry’s life…that feels almost Dickensian in style.”
Guardian
These are just some of the reviews about the fascinating non-fiction book, Dr James Barry: A Woman Ahead of Her Time.
Dr James Barry was many things in his life: Inspector General of Hospitals, army surgeon, duellist, reformer, lady killer, eccentric. He performed the first successful Caesarean in the British Empire, outraged the military establishment, and gave Florence Nightingale a dressing down at Scutari. At home he was surrounded by a menagerie of animals, including a cat, a goat, a parrot and a terrier. But most astonishingly, long ago in Cork, Ireland, he had been a young girl and a mother.
Read the first chapter here.
