What was it like to drive an ambulance through the London Blitz? Who joined up and why?
The volunteer ambulance service has been called 'the forgotten service'. I explore the reasons for this and look at the lives of some of the people who joined up.
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I am Naomi Clifford, a history writer with a particular interest in the lives of women, especially those neglected by posterity. Although my focus is on the late Georgian and Victorian eras I have also strayed into the 20th century.
The subjects of my talks include: Ugly as Sin: women, criminality and photography in the 19th century; Mrs Meredith’s Mission: convict laundries in South London; The Spectacular Fall of the Golden Boy of the Metropolitan Police; Under Fire: the work of the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service in the Blitz; By Her Own Consent: rape culture in the Georgian era.
My talks are interesting, well researched and beautifully presented, and suitable for a general audience. The slides are image-led (no weighty text!).
When I am not giving talks, I write non-fiction and historical crime fiction. Under Fire tells the wartime story of a debutante and London volunteer ambulance driver; Women and the Gallows looks at the lives and crimes of the ‘unfortunate wretches’ hanged in England and Wales between 1793 and 1837; The Disappearance of Maria Glenn reveals the behind-the-scenes machinations of a notoriously disputed elopement; and The Murder of Mary Ashford re-examines an 1817 killing that led to a change in English law.
My debut historical crime novel 13 Park Lane, an Amazon #1 best-seller, centres on a notorious real-life London murder of 1872.
I am happy to travel anywhere in the Greater London area and I am comfortable with online presentation for audiences across the world.
I am an editor of vauxhallhistory.org, an online magazine of history articles about the South London district, chair of the Friends of Stockwell War Memorial and Gardens, for whom I wrote These Are Our Sons, a compendium of the life stories of over 500 men named on the memorial, and a past presenter of The Door History Podcast. I regularly give talks for Lambeth Readers and Writers Festival and Lambeth Heritage Month events, as well other local history groups, U3A and the Women’s Institute.
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