Anita Leslie

Train to Nowhere (eBook, PDF)

One Woman's World War II, Ambulance Driver, Reporter, Liberator

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

ONE OF HAY FESTIVAL'S 100 BEST BOOKS WRITTEN BY WOMEN IN THE LAST 100 YEARS.

'The most gripping piece of war reportage I have ever read. What a writer! Her observations, mixed with dry humour and compassion, place her at the heart of the conflict and somehow apart from it, as a good historian should be. Remarkable.' Joanna Lumley

Train to Nowhere is a memoir of war seen through the sardonic eyes of Anita Leslie, a funny and vivacious young woman who reports on her experiences with a dry humour, finding the absurd alongside the tragic.

Daughter of a Baronet and first cousin once removed to Winston Churchill, Lelsie joined the Mechanized Transport Corps as a fully trained mechanic and ambulance driver during World War II, serving in Libya, Syria, Palestine, Italy, France and Germany. Ahead of her time, Anita bemoans 'first-rate women subordinate to second-rate men', and, as the British Army forbade women from serving at the front, joined the Free French Forces in order to do what she felt was her duty.

Writing letters in Hitler's recently vacated office and marching in the Victory parade contrast with observations of seeing friends murdered and a mother avenging her son by coldly shooting a prisoner of war. Unflinching and unsentimental, Train to Nowhere is a memoir of Anita's war, one that, long after it was written, remains poignant and relevant.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury UK
• Seitenzahl: 336
• Erscheinungstermin: 24. August 2017
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781448216857
• Artikelnr.: 48804987

Autorenporträt

Anita Leslie (1914-1985), daughter of Shane Leslie (Sir John Randolph Leslie, 3rd Baronet) and first cousin once removed of Sir Winston Churchill, was a writer of memoir and biography. She joined the Mechanized Transport Corps as a fully trained mechanic and ambulance driver during World War II, serving in Libya, Syria, Palestine, Italy, France and Germany. She wrote letters home from Hitler's office in the Reich Chancellery and took part in the Victory parade in Berlin. In the latter part of the war she drove an ambulance for the Free French Forces, and was awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1945 by General Charles de Gaulle. She is the only woman to be awarded both that and the Africa Star for her service in the Western Desert.

Leslie later married Commander Bill King and had two children. She published seventeen books, the last in 1985-the year she died.

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction by Penny PerrickPart I: Middle East1. Mechanized Transport Corps2. Step Off3. Cape to Cairo4. Souls in Khaki5. Desert's Edge6. Eastern Times7. Beirut Base8. Syrian Kaleidoscope9. Transjordania10. Ladies of Lebanon11. Good Works and Bad12. Goodbye Middle EastPart II: Italy13. Spring in Italy14. 'Air Evac'15. 'Simple Soldat'Part III: France and Germany16. My Kingdom for an Ambulance!17. Debut in the Vosges18. Le Repos19. Alsace at Last20. Beside the Rhine21. Christmas 194422. Winter Wait23. Hospital24. Battle of Colmar - Snow25. Battle of Colmar - Thaw26. Aftermath27. Home28. Bullets in Our Bonnets29. We Finish Pétain's Wine30. The Murder of Lucette and Odette31. 'Der Krieg ist Beendet?'32. Occupation33. Extermination Camp34. And so to Potsdam35. White Wine on the Moselle36. All ChangeA Note on the AuthorIndex

Rezensionen

Train to Nowhere is the most gripping piece of war reportage I have ever read: particularly affecting is Anita Leslie's account of the Battle of Colmar, where her descriptions are almost too unbearable to take in. What a writer! Her observations, mixed with dry humour and compassion, place her at the heart of the conflict and somehow apart from it, as a good historian should be. Remarkable. Joanna Lumley 20170701