Edith Cavell is well-known for her efforts in smuggling allied soldiers, separated from their regiments, out of war-torn Belgium. She was arrested and shot at dawn by the German occupying army in Brussels on the 12th October 1915. At the time of her death she made the comment now engraved on her monument in Trafalgar Square: ‘I realise that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness for anyone.’ Diana Souhami’s recently published biography of Edith Cavell attempts to get behind the famous persona to illuminate the earlier parts of her life.

Diana Souhami is an author and biographer who has published a number of historical biographies including “The Trials of Radclyffe Hall”, “Mrs Keppel and Her Daughter” and “Coconut Chaos”, a story of the Pitcairn Islands.