Book review: the birth of the NHS

Hold On Edna! by Aneira Thomas
“Hold on Edna!” cried the medical team as Edna Rees was about to give birth to her seventh child late on 4 July 1948. If only she could “hold on” for just a few minutes more, then the child would be born on 5 July – the day that the National Health Service came into being.
Edna and her husband Willie wouldn’t have to pay for a midwife – as they had with their previous children. If mother or child was ill, they wouldn’