Florence Nightingale - Sarah Ridley

Perfect for children aged 8+, this accessible biography of Florence Nightingale's life shows us why we still remember her today - 200 years after her birth (May 1820). Not only did Florence improve the lives of British soldiers wounded in the Crimean War, but as a professional and hard-working, extremely clever public-health reformer she led the establishment of a training school for nurses, better designed hospitals, improved sanitation and the idea of healthcare for all (leading eventually to the NHS). All this at a time when girls and women were expected to live their lives in the private sphere of marriage and home. The book is packed with images of objects, photographs and sketches to illuminate her life story, including her pet owl, her wooden lunchbox and her travelling medicine chest. Then there are her books, and her endless lists and reports (she was fantastic with statistics), and of course the famous Turkish lantern she bought from a market in Istanbul and used to light her way down the corridors and wards of the military hospital at Scutari.