‘The Library of War and Peace’ is my love letter to libraries. I’ve been a librarian for over three decades, and during those years I’ve worked in all sorts of libraries – public libraries, private collections, primary and secondary school libraries, and once an eighteenth-century haunted library. (I only lasted a year there!)

Books are in my blood, ink runs in my veins, and when I discovered the true story of the Endell Street Military Hospital library, I knew I had to write this novel.

Endell Street Hospital was groundbreaking in so many ways. It was set up in 1915 by Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson and Dr Flora Murray, two pioneering doctors who defied an initially sceptical War Office to establish their own Women’s Hospital Corps.

Having created an all-female-run military hospital in France (which was the inspiration behind my previous novel ‘Women of War’), the doctors and their team saved thousands of soldiers’ lives, and the War Office then asked them to replicate their successful model back in Britain. This Dr Garrett Anderson and Dr Murray duly did, renovating and equipping a disused workhouse in Endell Street.

From the start, their new military hospital had its own library, which was run by two prominent members of the Women Writers’ Suffrage League. The WWSL had been founded in 1908 by Cicely Hamilton and Bessie Hatton, the aim to obtain the franchise on the same terms as men, and its members sought to do this through writing.

Elizabeth Robins, an American actress and writer, was one of the first members of the WWSL, and its first president. The British novelist Beatrice Harraden was another of the organisation’s members and she served as librarian at Endell Street from 1915 until the hospital closed, joined by Elizabeth Robins for the first year or so.

The philosophy of Endell Street library was a reader-led one. The librarians catered for the patients’ requests when it came to their reading matter, rather than to impose their idea of what might be termed ‘improving’ books upon them. Many men feared having their lack of education or complete illiteracy exposed, so the librarians would take the time to sit at their bedsides, talking to the wounded soldiers to find out more about their interests and background. In this way, the librarians could make informed recommendations, as well as meet specific requests, and this became a unique opportunity to experience care based on books and reading.

The library was a huge success, and in many ways broke the ground for our modern bibliotherapy today. The art of healing through reading books continues to be a powerful form of therapy, and libraries play a fundamental role in this.

What more fitting way to honour libraries than in a book?

‘The Library of War and Peace’ is a story of two strong, determined, courageous characters, both of whom are inspired by real women.

The first, Edie Lawrence, is a young apprentice journalist and suffragette. Her character is based on the real Dorothy Lawrence, whose incredible exploits during World War One inspired me to write ‘Women of War’.

The second character, Josie Everley, is drawn largely from my imagination, but also inspired by all the library stewardesses who worked ocean liners like RMS Lusitania.

Miss Gordon the chief librarian in my novel is very loosely based on Beatrice Harraden, who managed the Endell Street Library from 1915 until the end of the War.

Dr Lucinda Garland and Dr Flora Murray are inspired by real doctors – Louisa Garrett Anderson and Flora Murray – whose brave achievements spurred me to write ‘Women of War’.

Harry Levinson is wholly from my imagination, although there were freelance war correspondents like him struggling to report the truth from the battlefields, their words censored.