Glass Partitions, by Isobel Crane

An original novel extract set in the twentieth century.

Peter was seven when they took out his tonsils in 1953, and he stayed on Rowan Ward for eleven days. Parents were allowed to visit for one hour on Wednesdays and Sundays, because Sister Morley believed that visits only unsettled the children. His mother came both times in her best coat and waved through the glass partition when the hour was over, and he cried so hard that a nurse had to hold him. The beds were lined up in two straight rows, and every morning they were stripped and made with corners so tight that Peter could hardly slide his feet down. Breakfast was porridge with no sugar, but after the operation he was given ice cream and jelly, which almost made up for his throat. The boy in the next bed, who had a leg in plaster up to the hip, taught him to play draughts with buttons on a square of cardboard. By the second week Peter had won forty-two games and could not remember what his bedroom at home looked like.

List five things you learn about Peter’s stay in hospital.