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Lorraine<\/a> star Dr Hilary Jones has just released the third and final book in his World War trilogy. Under Darkening Skies wraps up the story that began with Frontline, set in the First World War<\/a> and telling the story of nurse Grace, who volunteers on the Western Front. Next came the interwar years, charted in Eye of the Storm. The final book, meanwhile, wraps up Grace\u2019s story in WW2<\/a> \u2013\u00a0and charts the discovery of penicillin that helped thwart the Nazis.<\/a><\/p>\n The book begins in 1937, but charts everything from the birth of the NHS to penicillin\u2019s role in the conflict. But even as a World War buff, Dr Hilary confessed exclusively to Express.co.uk that he was still take aback by some of the things he learned.<\/p>\n The ITV<\/a> star said: \u201cThe story about the production of penicillin is a fascinating one \u2013 not just because of the medical implications, but because of the sheer serendipity of how it came about. It nearly didn\u2019t come about at all, for lots of reasons. It was incredibly difficult to produce it. Alexander Fleming who discovered penicillin didn\u2019t really know what he\u2019d discovered \u2013\u00a0he didn\u2019t do anything with it, he didn\u2019t test it out on animals, he didn\u2019t see it as a therapeutic agent. He thought it might be useful in the laboratory to make cultures of other bugs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt was much later when a group of Oxford scientists said, \u2018There could be something in this stuff\u2019. Even a teaspoon took them years and years to produce, and then when they first tried it on the first six patients, three of them died. By today\u2019s standards it would never, ever have been looked at further than that.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut they realised those three patients didn\u2019t die because of penicillin but for other reasons and they persevered, and with the help of the Americans it was produced in time for the D-Day landings and the Tripoli invasion. The book incorporates the fact that we had to send agents into Europe to stop the Nazis getting hold of it first. It was a fascinating story and I couldn\u2019t wait to write it.\u201d<\/p>\n The author added: \u201cI loved doing the research, I found out so much. There were things that were amazing to me. For example, I had no idea that in 1948 when the NHS<\/a> was finally brought into being<\/a>, nine out of 10 doctors voted against it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNye Bevan, at the time, wanted to give something back to the people who had sacrificed so much in the Second World War, particularly the working classes, and wanted to change the system where if you couldn\u2019t afford private medical care, you couldn\u2019t get any medical care for your family. So many died young.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBut nine out of 10 doctors voted against it, they wanted to keep their private medicine and their independence, they didn\u2019t want to be employees of the state. The British Medical Association said \u2018No, we don\u2019t want it\u2019. It was only because they were able to keep their independent contractual status as people who had a contract with the government for the NHS but weren\u2019t employees that it ever came into being.\u201d<\/p>\n