Train to Nowhere: One Woman’s World War II, Ambul

A World War II memoir following the adventures of a female ambulance driver as she serves across four fronts witnesses the best and worst of humanity, and navigates the barriers imposed by sexism in the British Army.

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

Daughter of a Baronet and first cousin once removed of Winston Churchill, Anita joined the Mechanized Transport Corps as a fully trained mechanic and ambulance driver during WWII, serving in Libya, Syria, Palestine, Italy, France, and Germany. Ahead of her time, Anita bemoans "first-rate women subordinate to second-rate men," and, since the English 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 watching 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.

With a new introduction by Penny Perrick.