Introduction to the novel

This introduction sets the novel within its historical context. Army without Banners tells the story of a rural housewife’s journey to find her niche on the Second World War home front. After being persuaded by her cousin to join the London ambulance service in the early days of the Blitz, Mrs Mildred Gibson joins the ‘civilian army’ of volunteers, an ‘army without banners’, fighting the ‘people’s war’. As she goes about her work, she records the fear and boredom of life during wartime, the routines of daily life as civilians adapt to the changing conditions of the Blitz, and the workings of the vast and complex voluntary organisations that supported the civilian population under aerial bombardment. Based on the experiences of the author, the novel is significant in its concern with the role of women volunteers in the war effort. Even if gendered expectations remained entrenched in other areas of their lives, such work took women away from the home and placed them instead on the traditionally masculine zone of the front line under combat conditions.