Detective fiction works best when there are rigid structures that can be obeyed, subverted or undermined.

The closed circle of suspects, the unbreakable alibi, the

pack to play fair by the reader. All of these restrictions help to stimulate

writer's creativity, the presence of certain archetypal

characters is part of this too, especially in crime writing from the 1920s and 30s. The detective, the Watson, the Red Herring, the least likely suspect, the elderly miser, the suspiciously hard-up wastrel and so on, are all very familiar to fans of who-doneits from this period.

That classic Cludo formula, Colonel Mustard in the Library with the candlestick,

didn't come out of nowhere.

One of these character archetypes that never gets enough attention I feel is that of the nurse.

She's a regular presence in Golden Age detective fiction, providing crucial evidence in a poisoning

plot or emerging as an unlikely suspect.

But it's not often that she gets to stand centre stage.

There's a wealth of fascinating historical change to the nursing profession reflected in these books too, if you only know to look out for it.

Today we're going to work on our bedside manner. Welcome to She Dunnet. I'm Caroline Crampton. In real life the role of nurses in Britain was changing rapidly during the period that

detective fiction was growing in popularity.

Florence Nightingale had come to prominence during the Crimean War in the 1850s, advocating for

better organisation and training of nursing staff who could treat wounded soldiers more effectively.

In 1859 her book, Notes on Nursing was published, which set out principles of sanitary care and treatment that could be applied in the home or in a hospital setting.

Her public profile and cultural cachet in Victoria Britain helped attract funding and the following year the

Nightingale Training School opened at St Thomas's Hospital in London.

It provided a year's residential training for student nurses, one of the first institutions of its kind to do so.

By the time the Moonstone by Wilkie Collins was published in 1868, which is often considered to be one of the first full-length detective novels,

the first few cohorts of Nightingale Nurses were working in institutions around the country.

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