October 1944. London still bleeding, battered and burning from air attacks. In a much-bombed voluntary hospital, patients and staff face another routine night — when routine includes the risks of sudden death or mutilation from flying bombs and rockets; risks shared by sick and well, for V/weapons don't discriminate and everyone in Wally's knows that. 'Wally's', a 40-bedded men's ward mostly filled with last night's casualties, is above ground ... and everyone in Wally's knows that too. Lucilla Andrews brilliantly recreates the feeling of wartime London as she focusses on twelve critical hours in the life of the ward and in the lives of the small team of doctors and nurses who work there. Love, tragedy and humour all mingle in this, the first of a trilogy which will follow the lives of the four main characters through from the pre-NHS voluntary hospital featured here to the very different world of the modern NHS in the '70s.