The Phoenix Syndrome

by Lucilla Andrews

It is February 1947, and England, having survived six years of war, is in the grip of the most severe winter in living memory. At 'the Hut', the ex-Army encampment that serves as the main country base for the still war-damaged St Martha's Hospital, London, spirits remain high despite snow-blocked roads, power cuts and shortages of everything, including staff. Back from the war are Sam Lincoln Browne, medical registrar, an ex-POW of the Japanese; Hoadley East, Senior Surgical Officer, ex-6 years in RAMC; Caroline Carr, theatre staff nurse, ex-2 years in QAIMNSR. The defensive layers the war had taught these young people to form are stripped bare when a diphtheria epidemic threatens.