The memoir of an ambulance driver in the 70s, full of anecdotes, some funny, some poignant, some tragic and some containing an awful lot of blood. It’s about an ordinary bloke doing extraordinary things and relating it to us with great humility.
Card-playing corpses, unfaithful husbands and 'flying' ladies - life as an ambulance driver in the 1970s was certainly varied ...At the age of twenty-three, Les Pringle decided to escape from office life, broaden his horizons and become an ambulance driver. Little did he realize how broad those horizons would turn out to be. Filled with warmth and humour, Blue Lights and Long Nights takes us back to a time when lonely old ladies could call 999 and have a cup of tea waiting when the drivers turned up for a chat; when learning to drive the ambulance meant going out for one test drive and managing not to hit a pedestrian; and, every day brought a glimpse into other people's lives. Gripping, poignant and darkly funny, Blue Lights and Long Nights is an affectionate, warm-hearted look at a world gone by.
Les Pringle is the author of the much-loved first memoir of his
ambulance-driver days, Blue Lights and Long Nights. He joined
Birmingham's Metropolitan Ambulance Service in the seventies for little
more reason than it seemed a good idea at the time. That good idea led
to three, unbroken decades of round the clock emergency work. He is the
holder of the Queen's Medal for Long and Exemplary Service. He has two
children and still lives in Birmingham with his wife, Marie-Madeleine.
