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Blitz!
Molly Lefebure was a reporter during the London Blitz and her first-hand descriptions bring authenticity to this sweeping historical saga. She tells the story of four families whose lives become entangled against the backdrop of a war-torn country.
348 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
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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 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 10, 2014
One of the best accounts of the blitz I have ever read. The unrelenting bombing that took place over London is brought to shocking life by Molly Lefebure's skill as a writer. The story follows several families from the outset of WWII, but unlike other storytellers, Lefebure leaves the characters with much of their lives untold. Excellent.
February 29, 2016
Written by someone who actually experienced it the description of the Blitz was so vivid you can live the horror. No sugar coating or fairy tale ending. Would have liked the story to continue to find out what happens to the characters next.
May 27, 2017
One of my favorite books ever. The London Blitz is such a terrible, yet fascinating, part of history. Hitler thought he'd smash London-- and so he did, but not the indomitable spirit of the Londoners themselves.
Molly Lefebure worked as a reporter in London during the Blitz, and you can feel the authenticity of her experiences in this book. It tells the story from all points of view: the East Enders who take the brunt of it; the volunteer workers who try to cope with something no one could ever have dreamed of coping with; the RAF pilots to whom "Never... was so much owed by so many to so few".
Molly Lefebure worked as a reporter in London during the Blitz, and you can feel the authenticity of her experiences in this book. It tells the story from all points of view: the East Enders who take the brunt of it; the volunteer workers who try to cope with something no one could ever have dreamed of coping with; the RAF pilots to whom "Never... was so much owed by so many to so few".
November 13, 2014
I'd thoroughly enjoyed the other book (Thunder In The Sky) I'd read by this author, so assumed that this would be equally good.
Perhaps it's actually a measure of the author's skill that she managed to portray the bombed-out East End characters and the characters of middle class suburbia with equal conviction, but I must admit that to begin with I found this slightly confusing - not just too many characters, but too many settings kept intruding so that I was a good way through the book before I finally found some characters I could latch on to & follow.
That said, it turned into a really good read, & possibly one of the best depictions I've read of what it must have been like to live through the blitz
Perhaps it's actually a measure of the author's skill that she managed to portray the bombed-out East End characters and the characters of middle class suburbia with equal conviction, but I must admit that to begin with I found this slightly confusing - not just too many characters, but too many settings kept intruding so that I was a good way through the book before I finally found some characters I could latch on to & follow.
That said, it turned into a really good read, & possibly one of the best depictions I've read of what it must have been like to live through the blitz
April 9, 2015
bored and gave up .. not really my thing
December 29, 2017
Great
This was an excellent read, I like stories about the war as my father was in the R.A.F. I highly recommend this book.
This was an excellent read, I like stories about the war as my father was in the R.A.F. I highly recommend this book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews