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Murder on the Home Front: A True Story of Morgues, Murderers and Mystery in the Blitz
It is 1941. While the 'war of chaos' rages in the skies above London, an unending fight against violence, murder and the criminal underworld continues on the streets below. One ordinary day, in an ordinary courtroom, forensic pathologist Dr Keith Simpson asks a keen young journalist to be his secretary. Although the 'horrors of secretarial work' don't appeal to Molly Lefebure, she's intrigued to find out exactly what goes on behind a mortuary door. Capable and curious, 'Miss Molly' quickly becomes indispensible to Dr Simpson as he meticulously pursues the truth. Accompanying him from sombre morgues to London's most gruesome crime scenes, Molly observes and assists as he uncovers the dark secrets that all murder victims keep. With a sharp sense of humour and a rebellious spirit, Molly tells her own remarkable true story here with warmth and wit, painting a vivid portrait of wartime London.
278 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1955
54 people are currently reading
1615 people want to read
About the author
Molly Lefebure
31 books6 followersMolly Lefebure was born in Hackney on 6 October 1919 into a family descended from prominent arms manufacturers in 18th-century Paris. Her father, Charles Lefebure (OBE 1941 Birthday Honours), was a senior civil servant who worked with Sir William Beveridge on the establishment of the National Health Service (NHS), applying some of the revolutionary ideas of Robespierre, the Parisian Lefebures having professed Jacobin sympathies. Her mother was Elizabeth Cox.
Some of Molly's forebears had been men of letters; and one, Pierre Lefebure, having helped to set up the Institut Francais, became a professor of languages at the newly formed London University. Her uncle was Major Victor Lefebure (OBE, Chavalier of the Legion of Honour and Officer of the Crown of Italy) who, on 5–6 October 1916, carried out one of the most successful cylinder gas attacks of the war on the French front at Nieuport. He was a British Chemical Liaisons Officer officer with the French until the war closed. He wrote 'The Riddle of the Rhine: Chemical strategy in Peace and War.'
Molly Lefebure was educated at the North London Collegiate School. She went on to study at King's College London at the University of London where she met her husband, John Gerrish.
During the Second World War, Lefebure worked as a newspaper reporter for a London newspaper. It was also during the war that she met Dr Keith Simpson (the pathologist) and worked for him as his secretary where she gained information for her first book 'Evidence for the Crown,' the inspiration for the two part ITV drama Murder on the Homefront, which was also a title she coined for this memoir when she later republished it. Molly was the first woman ever to work in a mortuary. She was known as 'Molly of the morgue' and 'Miss Molly' by Scotland Yard.
Lefebure went on to live with her husband and her two children at Kingston-upon-Thames by the river. She also owned a house, Low High Snab, in Newlands Valley in Cumbria, where she wrote many of her books.
Molly's maternal grandmother arranged for her to spend summers on a remote farm on Exmoor, where Molly learned to hunt. Blooded aged eight with the Devon and Somerset Staghounds, she subsequently wrote on hunting for both The Field and Country Life and was a member of the Blencathra Hunt in the Lake District for more than 50 years.
Among Lefebure's 20 or so other books was a 1974 biography of Coleridge, subtitled 'The Bondage of Opium,' and a study of his wife, 'The Bondage of Love' (1986), which won Molly Lefebure the Lakeland Book of the Year award. Her study of the Coleridge children, 'The Private Lives of the Ancient Mariner,' is with her publisher, as is her last book, about the Lake District, 'The Vision and the Echo.' She also wrote several novels, as well as (under the name Mary Blandy, an 18th-century forebear who was convicted of poisoning her father) two studies of drug addiction.
Lefebure's children's books include illustrations by the famous Lakeland author Hill Walker and illustrator Alfred Wainwright.
Lefebure was a Coleridge scholar. After studying drug addiction at Guy's Hospital in London for six years, she wrote a biography of Coleridge that researched the effect on his life of his addiction to opiates.
She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2010.
Some of Molly's forebears had been men of letters; and one, Pierre Lefebure, having helped to set up the Institut Francais, became a professor of languages at the newly formed London University. Her uncle was Major Victor Lefebure (OBE, Chavalier of the Legion of Honour and Officer of the Crown of Italy) who, on 5–6 October 1916, carried out one of the most successful cylinder gas attacks of the war on the French front at Nieuport. He was a British Chemical Liaisons Officer officer with the French until the war closed. He wrote 'The Riddle of the Rhine: Chemical strategy in Peace and War.'
Molly Lefebure was educated at the North London Collegiate School. She went on to study at King's College London at the University of London where she met her husband, John Gerrish.
During the Second World War, Lefebure worked as a newspaper reporter for a London newspaper. It was also during the war that she met Dr Keith Simpson (the pathologist) and worked for him as his secretary where she gained information for her first book 'Evidence for the Crown,' the inspiration for the two part ITV drama Murder on the Homefront, which was also a title she coined for this memoir when she later republished it. Molly was the first woman ever to work in a mortuary. She was known as 'Molly of the morgue' and 'Miss Molly' by Scotland Yard.
Lefebure went on to live with her husband and her two children at Kingston-upon-Thames by the river. She also owned a house, Low High Snab, in Newlands Valley in Cumbria, where she wrote many of her books.
Molly's maternal grandmother arranged for her to spend summers on a remote farm on Exmoor, where Molly learned to hunt. Blooded aged eight with the Devon and Somerset Staghounds, she subsequently wrote on hunting for both The Field and Country Life and was a member of the Blencathra Hunt in the Lake District for more than 50 years.
Among Lefebure's 20 or so other books was a 1974 biography of Coleridge, subtitled 'The Bondage of Opium,' and a study of his wife, 'The Bondage of Love' (1986), which won Molly Lefebure the Lakeland Book of the Year award. Her study of the Coleridge children, 'The Private Lives of the Ancient Mariner,' is with her publisher, as is her last book, about the Lake District, 'The Vision and the Echo.' She also wrote several novels, as well as (under the name Mary Blandy, an 18th-century forebear who was convicted of poisoning her father) two studies of drug addiction.
Lefebure's children's books include illustrations by the famous Lakeland author Hill Walker and illustrator Alfred Wainwright.
Lefebure was a Coleridge scholar. After studying drug addiction at Guy's Hospital in London for six years, she wrote a biography of Coleridge that researched the effect on his life of his addiction to opiates.
She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2010.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 170 reviews
May 3, 2020
Although the murders in this book are somewhat interesting, if thinly and inexpertly told, the author's attitude is repellent. Molly Lefebure, a journalist, has made no attempt to cultivate detachment or check her own prejudices. We find here that the only female murder victim the author felt wasn't to blame for her own death was a thirteen year old girl of whom the author says "....best soon forgotten". A young man who murdered a girl by stabbing her 34 times because if he couldn't have her no one would, is an object of sympathy while the girl's angry and heartbroken father isn't worthy of pity because he expressed his anger over the killing. When taken to hear a lecture by an accomplished woman doctor, all Molly can do is laugh at her for having a run in her stocking. I realize that Lefebure was a product of her times, but this is the worst case of victim blaming, internalized misogyny and man worshiping I've ever come across. The stories are tragic and painful to read about, but even worse is to have them revealed to us by a person completely lacking in empathy or compassion for other women. On top of this the fawning worship of her boss and other male co-workers while she derides other women as being weak and silly is nauseating.
There are far better books about the British Home Front during World War II that won't leave you feeling disgusted after reading them.
There are far better books about the British Home Front during World War II that won't leave you feeling disgusted after reading them.
April 26, 2014
This book is different. Very. For one thing it is written "of its era" completely. No sensibilities or censures of any detail that are not from the 1940-1945 era. And those are extremely different "eyes" than any of the WWII fiction or non-fiction that I have read in the last two decades. Most of those latter seem to screen though quite different lens of sensibilities and cultural mores. Modern to revised for PC police and other strictures. Not here.
Molly is telling her own tale of her own experiences as a secretary present during forensic p.m.'s performed during the London WWII experience. Dead bodies from the blitz to drowned or bludgeoned murder victims- present near her typewriter and/or tea tray.
I found the writing choppy and simplistic. Often repeated words of description too became annoying. Untidy being one of her favorites.
The uneducated /untrained level of her beginnings on this job! Or the processes during, for that matter- for which she had no professional methodology!
It was rather fascinating to read this view of another era through such completely different values and judgments too. And also her decision at the end re her career, and her entire reasoning upon it!
The hanging process as capital punishment being common and explained as she did was really a mind opener/ mind boggle to me. In context and as solution. Both. And more than just the explanations to a justified consequence. And also in the case of abortion. How ironic that now the rationalizations reverse upon those acts and actions; how at base they are defined and classified, then to now. Both having gone in near opposite directions from these starting points of values during WWII. Their base definitions are also radically changed, besides their legal positions of culpability. And in both eras of time those definitions are of course, settled and base "truth". Irony, irony.
The blitz sounded so, so horrific- but the 1944 doddle-bombs! After the blitz had ended, that V1 and V2 rocket reality of noise. It had to be a quarter of the way to insanity as she describes it.
But overall the book reveals the very fragility of human physical nature, to me it does. The D day soldier taking the cyanide rather than the landing craft ride to Normandy. All the way to the hot iron as a reviving device. Sad, sad endings, many after even sadder lives.
This is not a book that makes you feel better about human nature. Not even with the heroics of most Londoners during those tragic war years of destruction.
It's grizzly. And after all was said and done and I had finished? Can't put my finger on it but I did not like Molly all that much, not through any of it. Maybe it was because of her flippancy?
But it sure did teach me some facts and details of forensics arts way back then in that location.
Molly is telling her own tale of her own experiences as a secretary present during forensic p.m.'s performed during the London WWII experience. Dead bodies from the blitz to drowned or bludgeoned murder victims- present near her typewriter and/or tea tray.
I found the writing choppy and simplistic. Often repeated words of description too became annoying. Untidy being one of her favorites.
The uneducated /untrained level of her beginnings on this job! Or the processes during, for that matter- for which she had no professional methodology!
It was rather fascinating to read this view of another era through such completely different values and judgments too. And also her decision at the end re her career, and her entire reasoning upon it!
The hanging process as capital punishment being common and explained as she did was really a mind opener/ mind boggle to me. In context and as solution. Both. And more than just the explanations to a justified consequence. And also in the case of abortion. How ironic that now the rationalizations reverse upon those acts and actions; how at base they are defined and classified, then to now. Both having gone in near opposite directions from these starting points of values during WWII. Their base definitions are also radically changed, besides their legal positions of culpability. And in both eras of time those definitions are of course, settled and base "truth". Irony, irony.
The blitz sounded so, so horrific- but the 1944 doddle-bombs! After the blitz had ended, that V1 and V2 rocket reality of noise. It had to be a quarter of the way to insanity as she describes it.
But overall the book reveals the very fragility of human physical nature, to me it does. The D day soldier taking the cyanide rather than the landing craft ride to Normandy. All the way to the hot iron as a reviving device. Sad, sad endings, many after even sadder lives.
This is not a book that makes you feel better about human nature. Not even with the heroics of most Londoners during those tragic war years of destruction.
It's grizzly. And after all was said and done and I had finished? Can't put my finger on it but I did not like Molly all that much, not through any of it. Maybe it was because of her flippancy?
But it sure did teach me some facts and details of forensics arts way back then in that location.
February 7, 2023
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Reading through the reviews I’m shocked and amazed that people are complaining that a book written in the 1950s reflects the kind of views that were prevalent in the 1950s 😆 The cases are interesting, she is a very strong writer, and she doesn’t waste time pretending to be anything other than what she is. The bad reviews are almost as fascinating and entertaining as the cases. You people are nuts!
March 24, 2017
Molly Lefebure was a remarkable woman. I just wish she'd let it show.
I'm giving Murder on the Home Front four stars for its value as a primary source about living in London during World War II. Lefebure captures vividly what it felt like to go through the Blitz, and about the sheer hell of carrying on with daily life in a city that was being destroyed around your ears. She's an excellent, engaging writer with occasional startlingly poetic turns of phrase.
But her persona. Oh dear god I wanted to drown her in a bucket. She is chipper and cozy, and she presents herself as a person with barely two thoughts to scrape together in her head, which a glance at her biography shows is manifestly untrue. And while she's being chipper and cozy in the foreground, her job, as secretary to Keith Simpson, would be fascinating if she'd let us see it.
She is not a true crime writer. She doesn't have the knack (and there is definitely a knack to it), and her focus is always just slightly off-center--or, conversely, my focus is slightly off-center. Despite the fabulous opening line: The murdered baby had been found in a small suitcase.: this is much more about living in London during World War II and happening to have an unusual job, replete with "characters" to provide anecdotes, than it is about, say, the practice of forensic pathology between 1941 and 1946. It is very decidedly a memoir.
So, fascinating book, just not quite in the way I wanted it to be.
I'm giving Murder on the Home Front four stars for its value as a primary source about living in London during World War II. Lefebure captures vividly what it felt like to go through the Blitz, and about the sheer hell of carrying on with daily life in a city that was being destroyed around your ears. She's an excellent, engaging writer with occasional startlingly poetic turns of phrase.
But her persona. Oh dear god I wanted to drown her in a bucket. She is chipper and cozy, and she presents herself as a person with barely two thoughts to scrape together in her head, which a glance at her biography shows is manifestly untrue. And while she's being chipper and cozy in the foreground, her job, as secretary to Keith Simpson, would be fascinating if she'd let us see it.
She is not a true crime writer. She doesn't have the knack (and there is definitely a knack to it), and her focus is always just slightly off-center--or, conversely, my focus is slightly off-center. Despite the fabulous opening line: The murdered baby had been found in a small suitcase.: this is much more about living in London during World War II and happening to have an unusual job, replete with "characters" to provide anecdotes, than it is about, say, the practice of forensic pathology between 1941 and 1946. It is very decidedly a memoir.
So, fascinating book, just not quite in the way I wanted it to be.
February 24, 2017
Interesting premise, but ruined by the off putting narrator Molly Lefebure. A woman not so "ahead of her times" as her job might suggest, she expresses out of date views on gender roles, favouritism for the death penalty and an unsympathetic attitude towards murder victims; i.e.: "she was well accustomed to intercourse" speaking of a 15 year old.
August 1, 2022
4,5 stars - English Ebook
Wartime does not mean the absence of ordinary crimes.
It is 1941. While the "war of chaos" rages in the skies above London, an unending fight against violence, murder and the criminal underworld continues on the streets below.
One ordinary day, in an ordinary courtroom, forensic pathologist Dr. Keith Simpson asks a keen young journalist to be his secretary. Although the "horrors of secretarial work" don't appeal to Molly Lefebure, she's intrigued to know exactly what goes on behind a mortuary door.
Capable and curious, "Miss Molly" quickly becomes indispensible to Dr. Simpson as he meticulously pursues the truth. Accompanying him from somber morgues to London's most gruesome crime scenes, Molly observes and assists as he uncovers the dark secrets that all murder victims keep.
With a sharp sense of humor and a rebellious spirit, Molly tells her own remarkable true story here with warmth and wit, painting a vivid portrait of wartime London.
As the title says, this book is a true story of the activities of a medical pathologist during the Second World War. The secretary to the pathologist wrote this book.
The book describes several murder investigations during this period. What makes the account interesting is that the stories take place during wartime, demonstrating clearly that "ordinary" crime did not stop simply because there was a war on.
Some of the accounts are a little difficult to follow, almost like a diary or a series of notes about events. Nonetheless, it is an interesting account of an unexplored aspect of the war.
Wartime does not mean the absence of ordinary crimes.
It is 1941. While the "war of chaos" rages in the skies above London, an unending fight against violence, murder and the criminal underworld continues on the streets below.
One ordinary day, in an ordinary courtroom, forensic pathologist Dr. Keith Simpson asks a keen young journalist to be his secretary. Although the "horrors of secretarial work" don't appeal to Molly Lefebure, she's intrigued to know exactly what goes on behind a mortuary door.
Capable and curious, "Miss Molly" quickly becomes indispensible to Dr. Simpson as he meticulously pursues the truth. Accompanying him from somber morgues to London's most gruesome crime scenes, Molly observes and assists as he uncovers the dark secrets that all murder victims keep.
With a sharp sense of humor and a rebellious spirit, Molly tells her own remarkable true story here with warmth and wit, painting a vivid portrait of wartime London.
As the title says, this book is a true story of the activities of a medical pathologist during the Second World War. The secretary to the pathologist wrote this book.
The book describes several murder investigations during this period. What makes the account interesting is that the stories take place during wartime, demonstrating clearly that "ordinary" crime did not stop simply because there was a war on.
Some of the accounts are a little difficult to follow, almost like a diary or a series of notes about events. Nonetheless, it is an interesting account of an unexplored aspect of the war.
February 11, 2023
I suspect that a year or so from now, the latest British import on PBS will be Murder on the Home Front, a BBC series based on the book I’m reviewing. The book, a memoir, recounts the experiences of Molly Lefebure, who worked as a secretary to a medical examiner during WWII. From a historical perspective, the material is fascinating—though I would welcome even more about the blitz and day-to-day life in London during this time. The forensic cases are interesting, and I was impressed to see how many of today’s best practices had already been established at that time, despite the significant differences in technology.
The author, Lefebure, is a strong, eccentric character, at times delightful, at others very off-putting. Despite strenuous efforts by any number of boyfriends and potential boyfriends to push her into a more ladylike profession, Lefebure, gifted with a strong stomach and endless curiosity, delights in her work. At one point she tells us, “You could spend a hundred years in London’s mortuaries and never be bored.”
My complaint about the book is that Lefebure is also a creature of her time, coming across to today’s readers as deeply callous. Early on, she describes the range of cases she worked on:
[T]he coster’s wife who killed herself because her husband sold his pony, the one creature in the world she had ever really loved and been loved by. There is the baby whose mother left it to starve while she had a good time hitting the hay with American soldiers…. The old lady who put her head in the gas oven because she was sure the wireless had given her cancer. The airman who bailed out and his parachute didn’t open. The bright young thing who didn’t want a baby. The tart who picked up a killer for a client. The pansy who couldn’t face life anymore.
Really? The tart? The pansy? This is the way we want to describe the victim of violent crime and the social outcast? I know I’m being ahistorical, but would it have been so wrong for a modern-day editor to mitigate this flippant unkindness?
She also narrates the case of a young man who kills his girlfriend so that “no one else could have her” because he fears her father will break them up. What I found troubling was how readily the author seemed to embrace this murder as an appropriate, even romantic response to the perceived threat. When the young woman’s father testifies in court, Lefebure tell us “this display of outraged fatherly virtue, sincere and perfectly appropriate as it was, annoyed the court, whose sympathies clearly lay with the lovers.” The young woman had defensive wounds. Her boyfriend strangled her while pounding her head against the floor. Yet a reluctance to classify the crime as murder is equated with sympathy for the lovers?
I am hoping that the television series will be able to build on the more interesting parts of the book and to avoid the book’s lack of empathy. If it doesn’t, I suspect I won’t be watching it–just as I found myself having difficulty reading the book in its entirety.
The author, Lefebure, is a strong, eccentric character, at times delightful, at others very off-putting. Despite strenuous efforts by any number of boyfriends and potential boyfriends to push her into a more ladylike profession, Lefebure, gifted with a strong stomach and endless curiosity, delights in her work. At one point she tells us, “You could spend a hundred years in London’s mortuaries and never be bored.”
My complaint about the book is that Lefebure is also a creature of her time, coming across to today’s readers as deeply callous. Early on, she describes the range of cases she worked on:
[T]he coster’s wife who killed herself because her husband sold his pony, the one creature in the world she had ever really loved and been loved by. There is the baby whose mother left it to starve while she had a good time hitting the hay with American soldiers…. The old lady who put her head in the gas oven because she was sure the wireless had given her cancer. The airman who bailed out and his parachute didn’t open. The bright young thing who didn’t want a baby. The tart who picked up a killer for a client. The pansy who couldn’t face life anymore.
Really? The tart? The pansy? This is the way we want to describe the victim of violent crime and the social outcast? I know I’m being ahistorical, but would it have been so wrong for a modern-day editor to mitigate this flippant unkindness?
She also narrates the case of a young man who kills his girlfriend so that “no one else could have her” because he fears her father will break them up. What I found troubling was how readily the author seemed to embrace this murder as an appropriate, even romantic response to the perceived threat. When the young woman’s father testifies in court, Lefebure tell us “this display of outraged fatherly virtue, sincere and perfectly appropriate as it was, annoyed the court, whose sympathies clearly lay with the lovers.” The young woman had defensive wounds. Her boyfriend strangled her while pounding her head against the floor. Yet a reluctance to classify the crime as murder is equated with sympathy for the lovers?
I am hoping that the television series will be able to build on the more interesting parts of the book and to avoid the book’s lack of empathy. If it doesn’t, I suspect I won’t be watching it–just as I found myself having difficulty reading the book in its entirety.
June 17, 2021
This is one of my very rare non-fiction reads. Unfortunately, this was not the best choice for me. I thought I was going to be getting a journal or story about solving murders during the World War II blitz on England. But instead, I read a series of poorly written snippets of stories. Plus, I found Molly's tone and mannerisms of her speech patterns almost insufferable to my modern ears. I know this was written in current vernacular and with the ethics and morals of the time, but Molly Lefebure was sexist, classist, and pedantic. I wanted to pull out my hair and gouge out my eyes about half way through the book. I swear every woman that was murdered in this book, was a tart, a sloven, or a prostitute, or some combination of the three. Apparently in war torn England no woman of "the right sort" was murdered or required a post-mortem.
It is my understanding that this book was made into a 2 part series on the BBC. My guess is that they very loosely based the series on the book, because I'm sure I would have seen the controversy if they stuck to the book too closely.
It is my understanding that this book was made into a 2 part series on the BBC. My guess is that they very loosely based the series on the book, because I'm sure I would have seen the controversy if they stuck to the book too closely.
May 20, 2013
Back in the early 60s I started to become an avid reader - mainly of non-fiction. All the paperbacks I picked up tended to be autobiographical stories about the adventures of doctors in Africa combatting local superstitions, or of adventurers and their escapades in the Spanish Civil War or the Second World War. Occasionally they would be the reminiscences of Police Detectives narrating a list of crimes or counter-espionage agents... and so on. There was a pattern to all these books; a series of short stories, each occupying a chapter, interspersed with everyday memories.
It was with a real sense of deja-vue that I embarked on "Murder on the Home Front". This is exactly one of those types of books - it was, after all, written in the 50s. Molly Lefebure's story is fascinating, not just because of the life she experienced as a secretary to one of the leading figures in Forensic Pathology, sitting in on post-mortems and attending crime scenes, but also because of this all taking place during the Second World War, during the bombings and social upheaval of the time.
It is an easy read and manages to capture something of the world that has long disappeared. I loved it.
It was with a real sense of deja-vue that I embarked on "Murder on the Home Front". This is exactly one of those types of books - it was, after all, written in the 50s. Molly Lefebure's story is fascinating, not just because of the life she experienced as a secretary to one of the leading figures in Forensic Pathology, sitting in on post-mortems and attending crime scenes, but also because of this all taking place during the Second World War, during the bombings and social upheaval of the time.
It is an easy read and manages to capture something of the world that has long disappeared. I loved it.
February 11, 2022
Poorly written in an uppity and often pompous style. Also riddled with major mistakes; Ronald Hedley featured in chapter 22 was not hanged, he was reprieved and eventually released from prison. In chapter 5 she even gets the name of the killer wrong: it was Smith, not Brown. These are just two among several major gaffs.
I also found her attitude towards people who she obviously considers to be of a lower social standing than herself very judgemental, patronising, and extremely unlikeable. The lady was obviously a monumental snob. Ironically her condescending attitude towards other people actually displays a total lack of her own class.
Not really recommended.
I also found her attitude towards people who she obviously considers to be of a lower social standing than herself very judgemental, patronising, and extremely unlikeable. The lady was obviously a monumental snob. Ironically her condescending attitude towards other people actually displays a total lack of her own class.
Not really recommended.
April 16, 2015
I was expecting something different based on the description on the back cover. It details and document various murders that occurred but there isn't much mystery to them. The forensics of the autopsies did not seem to solve the cases so it turns into a bit of a dry read. From the title I thought there would be some discussion about murder rates during the time period, i.e. did people take advantage of the war and try to get away with murder. I did not dislike the book it was just not what I anticipated.
May 24, 2013
Very interesting take of what life was like working in the forensic world during the blitz. The book was actually written in the 1950's, but based on Lefebure's own experiences working alongside Dr Simpson, one of the more famous pathologists, up there with Bernard Spilsbury.
Saw the ITV show by the same name, which was disappointing, Dr Simpson becomes a fictional character, and Molly turns into an airhead.
Saw the ITV show by the same name, which was disappointing, Dr Simpson becomes a fictional character, and Molly turns into an airhead.
June 1, 2017
Overall I enjoyed the book but there were some obvious prejudices that dated the book. Considering how many murders she witnessed, it was disconcerting that she kept mentioning how abnormal murders looked. Most of the murderers I see in the newspaper look just like you and me. Also some of her opinions about people and behavior reflect are no longer currently thought (or at least if thought are not mentioned).
February 21, 2018
Murder on the Home Front is a memoir by Molly Lefebure, secretary to forensic pathologist Keith Simpson in London during WWII. I have mixed feelings about this book. While I found it enjoyable, and the stories interesting, it was very off putting to read in places because of the narrator. Leferbure was a product of her time, and this book was written in the 50’s, but even with that in mind it was still disconcerting to hear such misogyny and victim blaming attitudes calmly being spouted. That made the book hard to read at points, as one had the urge to reach through the book and shake the author, while asking “what were you thinking?!” I don’t feel like a memoir was the best way to showcase this woman’s story. A biography, drawing on Lefebure’s journals for information, would have been a much better choice.
July 21, 2019
This book was boring. I did not know what was happening half the time, she didn’t talk about interesting cases or really the war and name dropped random people so much you couldn’t follow what was happening and honestly it did not help the story at all. She’s also kind of a bad person. I thought this was going to be really interesting but it was not
November 26, 2020
Interesting account of working in a coroner's office during World War II. Molly was a little too plucky and perky for my taste (as well as pretty off-handed to say the least in her judgements of the people whose unhappy ends brought them to the attention of the coroner's office), but she probably does give us a truer picture of the time and the common attitudes than we get of that era nowadays from modern novels and movies.
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October 3, 2024I originally picked up this book thinking it was a historical fiction. Turns out it’s a memoir. While it did keep my interest and some of the murder investigations were interesting it was overall just ok.
July 17, 2020
I found this book oddly fascinating.
December 3, 2021
Funny and interesting. Written in a style more akin to fiction and so I find it much easier to stay engaged than with other non-fiction books.
December 24, 2017
This didn’t turn out to be quite what I expected. The cover compares it to Call the Midwife, but I disagree. Lefebure writes of her own experiences as secretary to a forensic pathologist, and leaves out nonsense of the gory details. But rather than being a fascinating account, I found it kind of disturbing to read of the levity with which she treated her job. I suppose you would need to have a sense of humour to deal with the horrible things she saw, so perhaps I’m being too harsh. In any case, I was expecting a little more mystery and a little less morgue. I was interested in it for the World War II aspect, but other than the dirty deeds of a few soldiers, this had little to do with the war.
On a side note, I’m a little bothered by the fact that this author went on to write children’s stories, according to her bio... hope they’re lighter than what these pages contain!
On a side note, I’m a little bothered by the fact that this author went on to write children’s stories, according to her bio... hope they’re lighter than what these pages contain!
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November 21, 2022Jumped right in to some blatant racism so I didn’t end up reading this one.
February 6, 2016
This is that rarest of TC books -- upbeat and remarkably lighthearted, yet never disrepectful to the seriousness of the subject matter. The author was a harried young journalist during WWII who unexpectedly found herself working as a secretary for up-and-coming British pathologist Keith Simpson, whose own memoir you really ought to read as well. Lefebure's book really captures the feeling of racing breathlessly from death scene to death scene at all hours of the day and night, fitted in around the active social life of a marriage-minded career woman. She gives us glimpses of every layer of London society and examples of one murder, suicide and unattended death after another, the tall and the small. She gives the reader a lot of insight into the temper of the times and the conditions people lived under in London during the Blitz, as well as the very entertaining reactions she got from other people when she told them what she did for a living. This book is wonderfully written in a way you hardly ever see anymore -- the sentences are graceful and witty, never clumsy or inept. The spelling and punctuation are correct, too. I am equally sure that the facts inside are accurate, because Molly F was after all personally gathering them at the crime scene herself as well as following up on them in the courtroom. She makes even the commonest situation memorable. HIGHLY recommended.
March 24, 2013
The author was secretary to the Home Office pathologist, Keith Simpson during World War II and this books is about her fascinating job. She would be typing up Dr Simpson’s post mortem reports while he was dissecting the corpse. Fortunately the author was never squeamish and she found the work very interesting. She would be whisked off at a moment’s notice here there and everywhere to take notes while her boss examined a murder victim in situ. She climbed over barbed wire fences and stumbled through muddy fields as well visiting some of the worst kept and the best kept houses.
What I enjoyed most about this book was the many touches of macabre humour and the way life in wartime London was depicted. I could almost feel myself there while I was reading the book. Some of the deaths which the pathologist dealt with were natural deaths but many were murder or suicide. As a result the author often attended criminal trials which she found absorbing. I loved the way the author showed the human tragedies behind many of the cases with which she was involved.
If you enjoy reading true crime books or books about life in World War II then this book will be of interest to you but above all it is a portrait of life and death and the way ordinary people deal with life in wartime. The book is well written and has some illustrations which displayed well in this Kindle edition.
What I enjoyed most about this book was the many touches of macabre humour and the way life in wartime London was depicted. I could almost feel myself there while I was reading the book. Some of the deaths which the pathologist dealt with were natural deaths but many were murder or suicide. As a result the author often attended criminal trials which she found absorbing. I loved the way the author showed the human tragedies behind many of the cases with which she was involved.
If you enjoy reading true crime books or books about life in World War II then this book will be of interest to you but above all it is a portrait of life and death and the way ordinary people deal with life in wartime. The book is well written and has some illustrations which displayed well in this Kindle edition.
March 10, 2014
I've had this book on my radar since I watched the tv series last year and grabbed it when I saw it as part of a 3 books for £5 offer. A really enlightening and enjoyable read based on Molly Lefebure's experiences in a London mortuary during world war 2. With all the drama over on the continent it's easy to forget that life carried on in Britain, murder was still a daily occurs and crimes needed to be solved. Lefebure is witty and charismatic relating her 5 years as secretary to Dr Simpson, a forensic pathologist. Molly's voice is warm, intelligent with the right amount of wit to make this a fantastically enjoyable read for anyone with interests in crime and history.
April 30, 2013
I can see why this has been ear-marked as a new ITV series although I can't see the subject matter giving Downton Abbey a run for its money.
Miss L clearly considered her boss, the pathologist Dr Keith Simpson, as a complete hero.
Enjoyable read although very dated in places, and overuse of the word 'sordid'! I wished she had gone into more detail about the 'sordid' things - they sounded very interesting........
Miss L clearly considered her boss, the pathologist Dr Keith Simpson, as a complete hero.
Enjoyable read although very dated in places, and overuse of the word 'sordid'! I wished she had gone into more detail about the 'sordid' things - they sounded very interesting........
September 1, 2014
Turned out better than I thought it would. This is a true story of Molly Lefebvre and how she learned the world of criminal forensics during WWII in London. She was asked by Dr. Keith Simpson to be his secretary and over the objections of friends and family, she went to work for him. Each chapter is its own story and the book is easy to read. I was amazed at how many of the crimes were solved using similar techniques that are used today.
May 6, 2016
What a surprise !! I would never have guessed that I would discover an author with such a beautiful writing style. Her descriptions of people, places, especially London, and her understanding of deeply felt emotions - these all combine to deliver a very poignant kind of autobiography. I will certainly hunt for her novels and read those. Such an unknown author here, in Canada, and such a bonus for me to have found her.
October 27, 2016
Molly Lefebure becomes secretary to Keith Simpson forensic pathologist during the second World War in London.
This book is her memoir of post mortem's, crime and hospital and prison cases as she followed Simpson around on his duties.
The writing is so descriptive of the situations and environments faced that you can visualise and sense them with ease.
It can be very gruesome in parts but then humorous also.
A fascinating read for those interested in this period.
This book is her memoir of post mortem's, crime and hospital and prison cases as she followed Simpson around on his duties.
The writing is so descriptive of the situations and environments faced that you can visualise and sense them with ease.
It can be very gruesome in parts but then humorous also.
A fascinating read for those interested in this period.
October 6, 2014
I thought it would have more of a narrative rather than each chapter being a different experience. So, did not finish.
September 18, 2016
This is a fantastic book. Interesting glimpse into a different era!
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