Kate Eastham

Kate Eastham enjoyed a long career in nursing before a change in circumstance meant she needed to be a full time carer for her husband who suffers from Parkinson's. Determined to make the most of her new role ‘working from home’ she cleared a space at the kitchen table for a pile of books and a writing pad and began to research the history of nursing. Inspired by the achievements of Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole during the Crimean War she was also awed by the sheer grit and determination of other 'ordinary women' such as the army wives whose voices from the past are seldom heard. An idea for a novel was born and Kate's first book, ‘Miss Nightingale’s Nurses’, was published by Penguin in 2018, closely followed by three more in the series. She then went on to write for Bookouture and produced four standalone historical fiction novels set during the world wars.

Having thought she would never find anything to replace the work in nursing she loved, Kate is now equally immersed in her writing, drawing on years of nursing experience and the stories told by so many patients. With her passion for history, she aims to continue making visible the lives of ordinary yet extraordinary women from the past.

Kate is currently writing for Boldwood and the first book in her brand new Country Nurse series, A Fresh Start for the Country Nurse, was published in March 2025. The second in the series, Changing Seasons for the Country Nurse, will be out very soon, on August 22nd.