New Guinea Nurse by Elizabeth Burchill

New Guinea Nurse

By Elizabeth Burchill

Rigby, 1967 [First Edition], black and white photographic plates, illustrated endpapers (maps), hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, a little edge and shelf wear, a little rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, tape residue to covers, ex-library with stamps and sticker residue to introductory pages and rear endpapers, no inscriptions, price clipped dustjacket shows a little edge and shelf wear with a little rubbing, bumping, and creasing (see photographs)

“Sister Elizabeth Burchill first saw New Guinea on a quick trip from Thursday Island, and was so captivated by its strange charm that she determined to work there.  Her chance came soon afterwards, and she went to join the devoted medical service working among people who still half believe in witch-doctors.  She tells of rough trips through the jungle to set up clinics in tiny villages, the natives who were at first shy or suspicious but later brought their children to be cured, the strange diseases and stranger customs.  With her we get to know all kinds of New Guinea folk; the patients in the primitive hospitals and the women of the jungles, the charming native nurses and the servants who have never seen a bed, the Australians working doggedly to bring a better life to the people and the happy-go lucky tribespeople who scratch a living as best they may.  With all the eye for unusual detail which she brought to the writing of Innamincka, Sister Burchill gives us a completely new picture of New Guinea… as seen by a woman and a nurse.”