Under Fire: The Blitz Diaries of a Volunteer Ambulance Driver

by Naomi Clifford

The true story of June Spencer, debutante and volunteer ambulance driver in Chelsea during the Blitz, told through her remarkable diaries.June Spencer is set to follow the time-worn path of a debutante, but when war comes to London she volunteers to drive an ambulance through the bomb-strewn streets of Chelsea.June’s first-hand accounts to paint a vivid picture of the contrasts of London wartime life–her accounts range from driving through the streets while under bombardment, to the aftermath of the destruction of the Café de Paris, to grand balls and parties in Lindsey House on the banks of the Thames.June befriended the future novelist Mary Wesley at Boskenna in Cornwall and encouraged her to ‘write a book about her friends’–decades later Wesley wrote The Camomile Lawn. June also numbered writers Patrick O’Brian and A.P. Herbert, artists Augustus John and Tom Dugdale, National Trust luminary James Lees-Milne and actor Constance Cumming among her friends and acquaintances.Naomi Clifford paints a compelling picture of what was really going on behind the façade of stoicism, spotlighting the complex emotional responses to the Blitz and to service on the home front.

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 7, 2021

About the author

13 Park Lane is Naomi’s debut historical crime novel and is based on a real-life case from 1872 in which Marguerite Diblanc, a young Belgian cook, murdered her mistress, a mysterious French widow.

Naomi Clifford grew up in London. After reading history at Bristol University, she spent two years in Nashville, Tennessee, and following her return worked for a variety of magazines and websites.

She has published several non-fiction history books focusing primarily on women and crime.

Reviews

[Frances Kitson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a riveting account of the dark and terrifying days of the London Blitz. Naomi Clifford has used June Spencer's diary entries, most of which are a record of what she did, where and when, as a framework for a rich evocation of the tensions, horrors, fear and occasional tedium of her work as a London Ambulance Driver during the horrific and deadly bombings. June was a newly presented debutante, thrown into the most gruelling and heart-breaking work when war broke out. As a survival mechanism, after working all day, she and many like her threw themselves into a whirlwind of parties, dances, soirees and chance encounters. Clifford's meticulous research unveils and brings alive the places, people and events of this double life, in a story that is as gripping and tense as any novel.

[Katelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow--Naomi Clifford has done some serious research to write this book. "Under Fire" features diary excerpts from June Spencer, an upper middle class British woman who lived in London and drove an ambulance during WWII, including during the blitz. I've read other diaries where the entire book is the person's diary. Instead, most of this book is Clifford's in-depth research about June Spencer and what her life was like, with brief diary entries (Spencer was not effusive) throughout.

[Tiffany Johnstone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant from start to finish for history lovers.

[Teri]

I only finished half- it wasn’t taking me there. I appreciate the research but this wasn’t the account I had hoped for.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

An good, if little dry account of life for an ambulance driver's service during the Blitz. I felt that the diaries while interesting didn't really give a full idea of what life was like for an ambulance driver at that time.