A FORMER nurse has drawn on her 23 years experience to write a light-hearted new book about life at Battle Hospital.

Lya Turner, from West Reading, moved to England in 1947 from Estonia, and began work at the old Oxford Road hospital in 1969 in the rheumatology department.

Her book, Battle Lines: Reminiscences and Cartoons of a Battle Hospital Nurse, includes a series of drawings and anecdotes about the changes she experienced working there through the 1960s and into the 1990s, mostly on 'nights' while she was raising her six children.

Lya said: "In the 1980s things changed much like they are changing now. I would get cartoons in my head and whenever something happened I would jot it down once I'd finished work.

"I used to hang them up in the office and people always commented on them."

Lya's passion for the hospital goes beyond her cartoons, and she was involved with the successful campaign against the loss of the hydrotherapy pool around the time of Battle Hospital's closure in 2004.

The 84-year-old's book contains reminiscences from others who worked at the hospital and a preface by Doctor Francis Andrews, previously head consultant in rheumatology at the hospital.

The official book launch will be held this Saturday at English Martyrs Hall in Liebenrood Road, from 2-5pm.

Battle Lines costs �6.99 and will be available from Waterstones, WordPlay, in Caversham, and direct from publishers Scallop Shell Press via www.scallopshellpress.co.uk

All profits from the book will be going to Arthros, a charity set up by the grandmother of seven, which supports people with arthritis and runs specially-adapted flats in Tilehurst for sufferers.