The Great Escape from the Woodlands Nursing Home is absolutely delightful. I loved the characters with all their quirkiness and hilarious situations they find themselves as they face living in a nursing home. Had many laugh out loud moments which in the current environment is wonderful. For me this was a Great Escape from our new reality!
I haven’t read any of Joanna Nell’s books but I will certainly be looking to read them all. Thank you to the author for providing such a wonderful story.

Highly recommended read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hachette Australia for a ebook copy to read and review.

I received this ARC EBook courtesy of Better Reading Preview.

As the title suggests, the setting for the book is within a Nursing Home. The story revolves around two main characters Hattie and Walter, and is told in their alternating view points. Both are there for a period of recovery - Hattie as a result of a fall, and Walter hit a lightpole with his car. Both fiercely independent 90 year olds, they are both wanting to return to the familiarity of their real homes, doing what they want when they want.

The story gets told from aternating viewpoints of Walter and Hattie - so you get to know what they really think of a situation. I loved that the characters were very much brought to life with wit and humour. Truly showing that as we get older, we are really just recycled teenagers. And that were are still very capable of getting into strife amidst the shock of the younger ones thinking that we shouldn't be behaving in such a manner. The interactions with Walter's grandson also show the special bond that they share.
I liked this story very much, and will be reading more of Joanna Nell's work.

The characters in this book completely stole my heart!
Hattie Bloom, feisty and fiercely independent at the age of 89 finds herself a reluctant respite resident at Woodlands Nursing Home after a fall. She is a firecracker and I loved her quick wit. Walter Clements, 90, with his heart of gold only wants to make people laugh with his “dad jokes” and is in denial about his permanent residency at the home - believing his licence to drive the “Tesla” (a shiny mobility scooter) is his ticket to freedom. There so much to love about this book. I’ve worked in aged care briefly and have looked after many Hatties and Walters during my career as a medical nurse so much of this story really rung true for me. A delightful read and one that I’d recommend to everyone

The Great Escape from Woodlands Nursing Home by Joanna Nell is a delightful and hilarious journey into the goings on and shenanigans in a retirement home.

Hattie Bloom is an eighty-nine year old reclusive spinster, she lives alone and prefers birds to people. Hattie takes a fall off an old rotting ladder and finds herself in Woodlands Nursing Home to her utter dismay. She is desperate to return to her cottage once her hip has healed as she struggles with the lack of privacy and having to be around people and not her birds.

Walter Clement is an inmate at Woodlands, he’s ninety and a wannabe comedian, he’s also intent on passing a proficiency test to ride his shiny red electric mobility scooter otherwise it goes back to the showroom!

At night Hattie is introduced to ‘The Night Owls’ a nocturnal and unofficial social club run by Sister Bronwyn (and her furry friend) with cocktails, exotic dancing, poker and canapes!

Woodlands turns into chaos and Hattie and Walter become partners in crime when Sister Brownwyn is unfairly dismissed from Woodlands.

A sweet and heartwarming tale of friendships, sorrow and laughter.

I wish to thank NetGalley & Hachette Australia for providing me with an advanced copy to read in return for an honest review.

Hattie Bloom is 89 she lives alone in her run down cottage; she’s a nature lover and has an interest in birds. When she takes a tumble and ends up in Woodlands Nursing Home she absolutely hates it and there’s no such thing as privacy in aged care. Hattie’s not used to being around people, being told what to do; she can’t wait until her hip heals and she can go home. Aged care facilities can be boring and extremely monotonous places to live; they have a regimented schedule, tight budgets, endless cups of cold tea, and don’t mention the food.

Walter Clements is a real character, he’s funny, he likes to tell jokes and he thinks all the ladies find him charming. He wants to leave Woodlands, he hates taking the water pills they give him and they also limit his alcohol consumption. His path to freedom involves passing a test to use a mobility scooter safely and he assumes it will be a piece of cake for a man with his capabilities? Hattie and Walter are complete opposites and when they meet Hattie isn’t at all sure of what to make of Walter! Sister Bronwyn works the night shift at Woodland’s and she runs a secret club called The Night Owl’s. Many residents have a problem sleeping, are almost nocturnal and she brings her dog Queenie to work with her and they enjoy the harmless night time activities she organizes.

When Sister Bronwyn is dismissed from her duties, the oldies are devastated; they miss her, the camaraderie, fun activities and Queenie. Walter, Hattie and their friend Murray who’s unfortunately very ill and confined to his room are determined to get Bronwyn reinstated. The ideas they come up with, plans they make and what they try is totally hilarious. I loved The Great Escape from Woodlands Nursing Home; it’s a wonderful story about a group of older people and their determination to have the night nurse reinstated. It’s an absolutely delightful book to read, so funny, with lovable and enduring characters and it’s an uplifting story. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, five stars from me and I’m keen to read Joanna Nell’s other books.

‘At Woodlands, time moved differently for the staff and the residents.’

Two of the residents of the Woodlands Nursing Home, Hattie Bloom and Walter Clements, seem to have only one thing in common: neither of them wants to be there. Hattie, who lived alone, was independent – until a fall. Walter is just waiting until he can take charge of his new mobility scooter, and then he is heading home. Walter, who sees himself as a comedian, is far too brash and loud for the very reserved Hattie Bloom. Both dream of escape.

Then, on one restless night, Hattie learns about The Night Owls. It is a clandestine club run by the wonderful Sister Bronwyn with the help of her dog Queenie. Many of the residents of Woodlands do not sleep well at night, so the activities Sister Bronwyn oversees are welcome. As is Queenie. But shortly afterwards, Sister Bronwyn is dismissed. Hattie and Walter would like to see her reinstated, and between them they work on a plan. At the same time, Walter’s friend Murray is dying. Can Hattie and Walter make his last days memorable?

This is a delightful novel, peopled with wonderful characters, facing many of the challenges that most of us will have (or acquire) some familiarity with. ‘Never get old’, my late father-in-law used to say. Unfortunately, if you live long enough, old age is inevitable. But it need not be boring.

Will Hattie settle into life at the Woodland Nursing Home? Will Walter ever get the keys to his Tesla mobility scooter? And what about poor Icarus, the budgie?

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.

‘Birds and humans alike needed to believe that things would always get better.’

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

4.5 stars

This novel was an absolute joy to read, so many wonderful characters and so much humour throughout that I had a grin on my face most of the time. I have to say though, it definitely made me NOT want to have to move into a home when I get older lol.

Our two main characters Hattie Bloom and Walter Clements were so much fun to get to know and it was so much fun to watch them get to know each other. Initially, Hattie who has lived on her own for her whole life, except for her birds, wants nothing to do with the other residents in the nursing home, especially loud and dangerous Walter Clements, but as Hattie starts to settle in she begins to see it might be quite nice to have a friend or two.

Neither Hattie nor Walter want to be in Woodlands Nursing Home, but due to an injury on Hattie's part involving a rotten ladder and a heart issue on Walter's, both are stuck in there for the time being. They both get up to some great shenanigans, if I were the nursing home staff I'd have been asking them to leave. Walter and his Tesla certainly provided some laughs, and I really liked the relationship between him and his grandson. 

The friendship between Walter and Murray, another resident who is dying was really lovely and allowed us to see the more sensitive side of this often inappropriate man. Later the friendship that forms between Walter and Hattie, teaching Hattie about friendship is also lovely. But when the three of them get together and start scheming, all bets are off on what might happen next. 

I enjoyed Sister Bronwyn, a night nurse, who had a very different and if I do say so, much better way of providing care for the residents than the generic way that most nursing homes run. I felt especially sorry for the DON who was just trying to do her job and keep everybody safe, health and safety being the most important thing when considering what the residents were and were not allowed to do. 

This novel covers many topics, aging, of course, loss of independence, the loss of being responsible for your own decision making, being put into a box, and treated the same as all the other residents despite being completely different and having different interests and needs. The routine inside the nursing home was quite rigid and for Hattie especially, she found this very hard to deal with. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, I have Joanna Nell's previous novel, The Last Voyage of Mrs Henry Parker sitting on my shelf that I really must get to.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Australia for a digital copy of this novel in return for an honest review.

While this was an entertaining read, I did not enjoy it as much as The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village. I loved the characters and the adventures they had. There were some heartbreaking moments, but all in all, it is a heartwarming read.

I really enjoyed the authors previous books so was looking forward to reading this new title: ‘The Great Escape from Woodlands Nursing Home’. I was not disappointed as there is a whole new cast of characters to bond and fall in love with: Hattie, Walter, Murray, Fanny and Queenie.
Getting old is no fun and as Hattie says “Her body might be a prisoner, but her mind and her sprit would remain free as long as she let them”.
A truly heart warming story about life and adventures in a nursing home. There are light hearted moments that make you laugh but the reality of life for the elderly in a nursing home is not all bingo and afternoon tea. As the author wrote “I want to offer readers an uplifting and ultimately hopeful portrayal of life in aged care” and she does just that.

Joanna Nell, you are officially my favorite Australian author.

Another story from Joanna about life in a nursing home, Woodland. You'll be having a few chuckles here and there, you'll enjoy the friendships among the residents of Woodland. I especially love the friendship between Walter and Murray. It's an easy slow reading but totally hooked me up from the beginning.

As we get closer to retirement age and possibly the end game of a nursing home, our thoughts turn to aging and losing our independence. Joanna has done an absolutely superb job of combining humour and warmth with compassion for the reality that no matter who or what we were in life, we inevitably become more 'invisible' to the world. I haven't read either of her two previous books, but thanks to Hachette Australia for letting me read this one, they are now on my list!

The characters in this story are just delightful and I was so absorbed with their stories that I read it in one sitting and really wished it would go on longer. This is just the sort of story to escape to in the uncertain times we are living in right now. Loved it.

Quirky, fun & adventurous, The great escape from Woodlands Nursing Home describes the life of a handful of residents who have been “locked up” in an Aged Care Facility. The staff are their enemies, their family don’t understand, they just want their independence & to return home.
Having worked in aged care, I heard every word of this book. Every bad thing a staff member said, every sadness a resident felt when they were told no & they’d just have to stay.
The characters all had different personalities & put together in a room, they rubbed each other the wrong way & caused me many laughs.
What a delightful read.

“From years of careful observation Hattie had worked out how birds interacted. She’d learned their social hierarchies and their peccadilloes. She could read birds, and for decades, had reported their behaviour in what was essentially an ornithological gossip column or society page. Humans, on the other hand, remained an enigma.”

The Great Escape From Woodlands Nursing Home is the third novel by Australian author, Joanna Nell. Eighty-nine-year-old Hattie Bloom (Miss) is desperate to return to Angophora Cottage and its eponymous tree: on the fence-line, it’s the basis of a dispute with her new young neighbours, but a source of joy for Hattie, home to a pair of nesting Powerful Owls.

It’s a small irony that it’s Hattie’s concern for said owls, and her neighbours’ fixation with tree-lopping, that have landed her in Woodlands Nursing Home, until her hip heals (apparently the ladder was rotten). Hattie’s first attempt at escape fails when a traffic jam prevents the taxi progressing off the grounds.

Walter Clements, a feisty ninety, has also failed. The Tesla scooter he has had delivered sits in a corner of his room, the keys confiscated after the assessment, on which the DON insisted, ended rather badly. Casualties were a statue, a valuable eighteenth-century table, the OT’s foot and the shin of one Miss Hattie Bloom. Walter is incredulous: as a former driving instructor, he has every confidence in his driving skills; and the Tesla will be so handy for nipping down to the bottle shop, once he is permitted to use it.

At Woodlands, sleep does not come easily (if at all) to Hattie, but on her next sleepless night, two new faces present: the sympathetic face of the night nurse, Sister Bronwyn, and her elderly black Labrador, Queenie. Sister Bronwyn invites Hattie to join the Night Owls, and when she does, Hattie is quietly impressed with this nurse’s laterally-thought-out solution to elderly insomnia.

When Walter isn’t keeping his terminally ill friend Murray, company at night, he heads to the Day Room where the Night Owls gather; he’s hoping to get a smile out of Hattie Bloom but he might need to update his comic repertoire. He reminds Hattie of a kookaburra: “always laughing at his own jokes.” But his effort to impress leads to an incident that sees everyone’s favourite nurse lose her job.

Sister Bronwyn is replaced by an agency night nurse: “Not so youngish close up. Her hair a shade too yellow and her face obscured by thick makeup that gave her the appearance of an overworked painting. She had precise eyebrows that looked as if they’d been drawn on with a calligraphy pen, and conspicuous lips that looked as if they’d been caught in some sort of suction device.”

Without the Night Owls, the many Woodlands insomniacs are agitated. But between them, Hattie, Walter and Murray have confidence in their plan to get Sister Bronwyn reinstated. After all: “Everyone expects so little of us, expects us to be completely incapable. That’s our secret weapon.”

Nell’s third novel is another delight. Her characters will quickly charm the reader with their opinions, attitudes, insights, humour and wise words. As might be expected from the Nursing Home setting, the pace is fairly sedate, until the last fifth, when the reader’s heart might be thumping right along with Walter’s.

For any reader familiar with them, either through friends, family, or personal experience, Nell’s depiction of a care facility and its residents, what plagues them but also what brings pleasure, will definitely strike a chord, and attest to Nell’s extensive knowledge of her subject.

Without getting too graphic, Nell draws attention to the losses that afflict the aged, especially when they enter such a facility, whatever the quality: dignity, independence, freedom, familiar surroundings, convenience and more; and how they so easily feel invisible, unimportant, insignificant. Funny and poignant, this is a truly heart-warming read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Hachette Australia.