Hospital Gift Books were a way of raising funding for specific projects before the founding of the National Health Service in 1948. Greenwood contributed stories to two of these, one in the mid-thirties and one in the mid-forties, just a few years before the NHS was established by the post-war Labour government. This article discusses these two stories as well as looking at the kinds of literature both entertaining and serious offered by these books. In this case, the two books were dedicated to raising funds for a children’s hospital and a hospital for mothers and children in Manchester. One of Greenwood’s stories focuses on the end of life, the other on childhood deprivation in Hanky Park, yet both are simultaneously grim and humorous (in their own ways).
Best Chris.
Walter Greenwood: Not Just Love on the Dole 