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Meet the Guinea Pig Club. The astonishing story of the Allied Airmen who formed WW2’s most unique club. A tale of unsung heroines, pioneering surgery and sex in the linen cupboard!

Meet the Guinea Pig Club. The astonishing story of the Allied Airmen who formed WW2’s most unique club. A tale of unsung heroines, pioneering surgery…

FromFrom the Library With Love


Meet the Guinea Pig Club. The astonishing story of the Allied Airmen who formed WW2’s most unique club. A tale of unsung heroines, pioneering surgery…

FromFrom the Library With Love

ratings:
Length:
64 minutes
Released:
Nov 24, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

20th July 1941. It is a dark night in war-torn Britain. In blacked out Sussex a band of men sit huddled in an old shed, deep in the countryside. One by one they make a pledge to join a very special little wartime club. A toast is drunk to the forming of The Guinea Pig Club.It was the most exclusive club in the world, but as the founding member admitted, "the entrance fee is something most men would not care to pay and the conditions are arduous in the extreme".The club was made up of Allied Aircrew who were all being treated by surgeon Archibald McIndoe for horrific burns suffered whilst in active combat.McIndoe was something of a pioneer, using groundbreaking plastic surgery techniques. He passionately believed that if the injured airmen were to have any future he needed to help them recover their place in the world. Unconventional, the doctor encouraged drinking and flirting with the nurses on the ward. One of the nurses granddaughter's, Dr Emily Mayhew, a military medical historian and author of The Guinea Pig Club: Archibald McIndoe and the RAF in WW11 lifts the lid on a extraordinary wartime club.
Released:
Nov 24, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (41)

Librarians, bestselling authors and our wartime generation sharing their love of books, reading and some extraordinary stories . #Hidden History #Forgotten women #Bibliotherapy #LibrariesINTRODUCTIONWelcome to From the Library With Love. A podcast for anyone whose life has been changed by reading. I’m Kate Thompson. Wonderful, transformative things happen when you set foot in a library. In 2019 I uncovered the true story of a forgotten Underground library, built along the tracks of a Tube tunnel during the Blitz. As stories go, it was irresistible and the result was, The Little Wartime Library, my seventh novel.Bethnal Green Public Library, where the novel is set was 100 years old in October 2022, and to celebrate the centenary of this grand old lady, funded by library philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, I set myself the challenge of interviewing 100 library workers. Speaking with one library worker for every year this library has been serving its community seemed a good way to mark this auspicious occasion. Because who better to explain the worth of a hundred-year-old library, than librarians themselves!I wanted to explore the enduring value of libraries and reading. I quickly realised that librarians have the best stories. My research led me to librarians with over fifty years of experience and MBEs, to the impressive women who manage libraries in prisons and schools, to those in remote Scottish islands. From poetry libraries overlooking the wide sweep of the Thames, to the 16th century Shakespeare’s Library in Stratford, via the small but mighty Leadhills Miners’ Library. This podcast was born out of those eye-opening conversations, because as Denise from Tower Hamlets Library told me: 'If you want to see the world, don't join the Army, become a librarian!'I’ll also be talking to international bestselling authors and some remarkable wartime women about their favourite libraries, stories, the craft of writing and the book that helped them to view the world differently. Come and join me as I delve into the secrets behind the stacks.Podcasts edited by Ben Veasey at media-crews.co.uk Image by Julie Price