Contact me

wendy.moore@wendymoore.org

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Wendy Moore - freelance journalist and author

I am a freelance journalist and author of six non-fiction books on medical and social history. My new book, Jack and Eve: Two Women in Love and at War, is out now. For details of talks and festivals see here.

My new book

Jack and Eve: Two Women in Love and at War, is published by Atlantic Books in the UK. It tells the story of Vera 'Jack' Holme and Evelina Haverfield, pioneering suffragettes who became lovers. Jack was an actress who specialised in cross-dressing roles. She became official chauffeur to suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst. Eve, who was born into the British aristocracy, was an intrepid traveller who became one of the suffragettes' most active speakers and agitators. In the First World War they went to Serbia with the Scottish Women's Hospitals (SWH) voluntary organisation to provide medical aid to the Serbian Army. When Serbia was invaded they were taken prisoners of war. After being freed, they travelled to Russia with the SWH to drive ambulances right up to the firing line on the Dobruja front. They were devoted lifelong partners but also pioneers of new ways of living and loving. Jack enjoyed numerous liaisons with other women - detailed in her diaries - and especially favoured three-way relationships. But when Eve died, in Serbia soon after the war ended, Jack was devastated. Jack and Eve is a love story set against the backdrop of intense acts of bravery during the First World War.

 

REVIEWS

'...richly researched' ... 'it is an invigorating and engaging tale, well fed by diaries and letters, and told with an unpretentious, straightforward energy of which they subjects themselves would approve.' - Libby Purves in the TLS read here

'Had Wendy Moore been writing a novel, she could hardly have invented more fabulous leading characters than Vera 'Jack' Holme and Evelina 'Eve' Haverfield or have set her narrative in a time of greater drama... In Moore's pacy narrative, their astonishing lives once again demonstrate not only how women could seize power for themselves, but also the value of their much-underestimated resources.' Clare Mulley in the Literary Review read here

'The book is packed with feats of courage amid perilous conditions as the couple were held prisoner, then escaped and travelled through revolutionary Russia carrying smuggled documents. Events are described powerfully yet subtly, and there is no drama for its own sake.... Reading this book was like taking a cool shower after a hot day.' Julie Bindel in The Spectator read here

 

Listen to my interview on History with Jackson podcast

BUY from Waterstones  or Hive Books or Amazon 

 

Endell Street (UK) No Man's Land (US) 

My last book tells the story of the suffragette doctors, Louisa Garrett Anderson and Flora Murray, who ran Endell Street Military Hospital in the heart of London in World War One. Endell Street was the only hospital within the British Army to be staffed by women - all the doctors, nurses and orderlies were female except for a handful of male helpers. The women of Endell Street treated 26,000 wounded shipped back from the frontline in France, Gallipoli and elsewhere. After the war the hospital stayed open to treat victims of the Spanish flu. But when peace came everything changed.   

Endell Street is published by Atlantic Books in the UK and as No Man's Land by Basic Books in the US.            

BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week  

Order Endell Street from Waterstones Amazon Hive Books

My virtual talks        My video

Watch the interview with me by Dr Dave Schneider

Listen to me talking on the Going Viral Podcast   Hear my interview on PeerSpectrum

 

 

"Meticulously researched, written with élan and wit, Moore’s account comes at just the right time… “No Man’s Land” reminds us that people can rise to an occasion, that the biggest advances — for medicine, for humanity — can come during the toughest times, as a result of the toughest times. It reminds us that great courage and great ingenuity are possible even when the world feels very dark.” - Sarah Lyall in the New York Times

 

"This is the best book I've read about the First World War since Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth. ...this fascinating book is a microcosm of early 20th-century Britain at its very best - and its very worst." - Ysenda Maxtone Graham in The Times

 

“An absorbing and powerful narrative … Ms. Moore has an eye for detail that brings her story to life.” - Melanie Kirkpatrick in the Wall Street Journal

 

"This unmisssable, thrilling read ... Rarely is a book so important, so timely... vividly and meticulously written, Endell Street is a masterpiece to stretcher straight into a major film studio." - Philippa Stockley in the London Evening Standard

 

"One hundred years on, this compelling book at last gives Endell Street its due... Wendy Moore vividly depicts the convoys of seriously wounded soldiers arriving straight from the battlefields in France ... Moore is superb at describing the medical advances ..." - Ann Kennedy Smith in The Guardian 

 

"...riveting... Moore has scoured archives and diaries to produce a meticulously researched history of this extraordinary institution.... By writing this splendid book, Moore has ensured that the efforts of these pioneering women will never be forgotten.' - Patricia Fara in the Literary Review

 

"This is history worth knowing and a book worth reading; it is a story of the triumph of the human spirit." - New York Journal of Books

 

"Informative, compelling and poignant, Endell Street is a forgotten story superbly told" - TLS

 

The Mesmerist - in paperback

 

The Mesmerist tells the story of John Elliotson, a revered doctor and teacher who introduced mesmerism - hypnotism - to Victorian Britain. Elliotson's demonstrations of patients being mesmerised at University College Hospital, London, drew huge crowds. Spectators were entranced by the Okey sisters, aged 15 and 17, who performed astonishing acts while mesmerised. When Elliotson's colleagues began to ask questions about the girls' veracity his brilliant career was in jeopardy.

Buy The Mesmerist at Amazon or Waterstones

Is Hypnosis Real? - BBC World Service CrowdScience

Listen again  or Download the podcast

 

Reviews of The Mesmerist

Daily Telegraph 'engrossing' Times 'vivid set pieces'

Guardian Book of the Day 'told with gusto' Literary Review 'thrilling'

 Spectator 'Wendy Moore is an expert guide to the world of early 19th-century medicine, and this fascinating book is packed with buccaneering, larger-than-life doctors and gruesome operations'.

How hypnosis cured my headaches - my experience of hypnotherapy in the Daily Express

The Lancet - How hypnosis split the Victorian medical profession

Read all the reviews Full details of all my talks here

Read an excerpt from The Mesmerist  

The best advice I ever received as a writer - listen to my audio piece

Writers who inspire me - listen to my audio piece

 

 

My other books

 Buy my books on Amazon               

                        Wedlock                How to Create the Perfect Wife         The Knife Man

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