What are you reading at the moment?

Would appreciate your thoughts on this one please, Owen.

Have just started Wings of Destiny - Wing Commander Charles Learmonth, DFC and Bar and the Air War in New Guinea by Charles Page. Initial impressions are of excellent illustrations throughout and a comprehensive biography with excellent contextual research. Forty-two pages in and have found it well-written and detailed.

Btw, picked up Lex McAulay's We Who Are About to Die in mint condition for $6 yesterday! Add Behind Bamboo by Rohan Rivett and The Twenty Thousand Thieves by Eric Lambert in similar condition for another $14 and it was a good trip to the markets (first time I've come up trumps there)!

Lambert is an interesting character:
Lambert, Eric Frank (1918 - 1966) Biographical Entry - Australian Dictionary of Biography Online

 

Don't Fence Me In.

Some years ago I had a book recommended to me by a veteran of the North African Campaign and made a note. Going through some old references the note fell out so the book was found on Amazon.
Don't Fence Me In was written by the Rev.Ray Davey in 1946 and a second edition was published in 1954. Although only the book is only 118 pages in length,being written while everything was fresh in his mind makes it a great read.

 

I have just finished "The Next Moon" by Andre Hue and Ewen Southby-Tailyour. Andre Hue was an Anglo-Frenchman who survived a shipwreck, joined the French Resistance, returned to Britain and was subsequently dropped behind enemy lines in June 1944 to unite local resistance forces in Brittany and harry the retreating German forces after the invasion.
Possibly not in the league of the books that you all read but I enjoyed it.

 

Sounds very interesting Nana. Have seen it on Amazon but always get distracted.

I am still reading the RFC history I started a week or so ago.

 

Not reading anything at the mo, think it'll be something "light" next so maybe some non-war related fiction. LOL, most likely Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian...so, not war-related...World War II anyway...sigh. Perhaps a Clive Cussler will suffice.

Picked up another two Ramage books yesterday for $10 - not that I have time to read them as I'm only up to book 2 (of 20...as I find them) in Patrick O'Brian's series. Bloody authors and their talent!

 

Treasure of Khan by Clive Cussler. Rollicking good read so far.

 

Against All Odds - RAAF Pilots in the Battle for Malta 1942 by Lex McAulay. A full on read, jumps straight into the action while providing context. So far, a good account of just how frenetic things were. Madness.

 

Desert Flyer - The Log and Journal of Flying Officer William Marsh by Martyn R. Ford-Jones.

A good read so far although Marsh has only just completed Harvard training in Canada and I'm only up to page 37 having already covered his early life - the reading is a little disjointed due to the lack of early records by Marsh. It's during his initial training in England that Marsh began to record his thoughts etc in a journal, the use of which seems to get very extensive as he goes operational. He also had a camera handy on most occasions and the pics featured so far are gems.

The use of "airplane" riled me a little but then it is an American-published book. The fact that it's been published is more important.

 

Am halfway through the book mentioned above and while I stand by my assessment of it being good to publish this story, I am not at all impressed with the research and writing. The bibliography just contains five sources, one of which I can't see being of any relevance so far and another two being official squadron ops books/records. The grammar is average with regular errors (not that mine is perfect) and I have encountered several incomplete sentences which make no sense (not to mention the repeat of an inomplete sentence in a paragraph about a combat - took the "rush" away!). There is also the apparent need to insert extra words using square brackets into the log excerpts so they make more sense. This lessens the feel of Marsh's writing at the time. Over-clarification also prevails. When "Spits" are mentioned by Marsh, for example, the author or publisher felt the need to put "Spitfires" in brackets...

I have a severe feeling this book was written for the American market so was simplified so RAF ops in North Africa could be easily understood - I don't think American enthusiasts were given enough credit here.

It's not often I write a review of sorts before I finish a book but, as Kyt will attest, I have come across that many things that have annoyed me in this book that it takes some of the enjoyment away from reading about the lilfe of a relatively unknown Hurricane pilot. Having said that, this book is full of more than 200 of Marsh's photos and these are an excellent record of life and death in the desert.

I'll post a fuller review later upon completion and then may have to read Russell Brown's Desert Warriors to lose the frustration!

 

I am currently reading a couple of books:

Indian Voices of the Great War: Soldiers' Letters, 1914-18

The letters are very poignent, and the Introduction is excellent in contextualising both the history of the Indian forces and the nature of the letters themselves. Well worth the small fortune I paid for the hardback!! Having read the Intro, I am now reading a few letters everyday.

The other book is Man Is Not Lost: The Log of a Pioneer RAF Pilot/Navigator 1933-1946 by G/C Dickie Richardson, which was sent to me by Andy. I am about half way through it and am thoroughly enjoying. Dickie writes in a very accessible way, and is one of the best that I have read about the pre-war experiences of an RAF Officer. He did his flight training, and most of his early flying in Egypt, and paints a fantastic picture of the on and off duy antics of himself and his fellow flyers. His descriptions of the local populace are also sympathetic, though colourful. As are his descriptions of the aircraft. But as someone who went to write THE text for navigators he is scathing in his views of prewar navigation training. Am looking forward to the rest of the book.

 

Prehistoric Ritual & Astronomy by Aubrey Burl.

 

The Petticoat Commando or Boer Women in Secret Service

By Johanna Brandt

Petticoat Commando

 

ooooooh sounds nice. And please let me correct my book title: Prehistoric Astronomy & Ritual.

 

Bush Pilots Do It In Fours by Roy Watson. Fascination with flying, learning to fly and then everything up to DC-4s and 707s on supply drops in Africa. Went for something a bit light.

Bought the book when I was in South Africa last year. Taken me more than a year to get to it...mind you, there's some books I bought pre-2002 that I haven't read yet!

Amazon.com: Bush Pilots do it in Fours: Roy Watson: Books

 

The Righteous by Martin Gilbert

(2nd time read because I did not pay enough attention the first time)

 

Air War Diary - An Australian in Bomber Command by David Scholes DFC.

Good so far. Diary entries read well and are full of the language of the day (of course). He was mustered on Spits after requesting Mustangs with the TAF so I'm looking forward to seeing how he ends up doing a tour on Lancs.

The author is well known in Australia as a fly fishing writer.

 

The Biggin Hill Wing 1941 - From Defence to Attack by Peter Caygill.

Good summary of Biggin Hill to 1941 so far and am looking forward to the personal details and assessment of the effectiveness of the offiensive ops. Text is bloody small!

 

Hi Andy,
Recently read:-
"Wings Day" interesting account of life behind the wire.
"Fighter Pilot" by Paul Richie DFC, good read.
"Not Peace but a Sword" by WinCo Patrick Gibbs DSO,DFC*, a bit glamorised and "gung ho"
"Reach for the Sky" as good now as when I first read it.
"First Light" Geoffrey Wellum, absorbing down to earth story of a young fighter pilot.
"I Flew for the Fuhrer" Contrasting story of a Luftwaffe fighter pilot.
I am busy reading "Douglas Bader" by John Fray Turner, an accurate account of the life of Douglas Bader in co-operation with "DB" his wife and close friends, proving to be a good account.
Have a very detailed book"The Battle of Britain(Them and Now) MK III, after the battle" by
Winston G Ramsey. An excellent reference book, lists in date order all aspects of the period including all stations, daily battles, personel and casualities, A4 816 pages too heavy to read.
Cheers
Keith
PS Dropped this in the wrong slot(Quality Books)

 

Keith, a good list indeed. I'll pick up First Light one of these days. I have heard it is regarded as a classic. I own the Frayn Turner book but haven't read it (picked up for $5 in a discount store!). Same applies to the copy of the the Richey book I have but I read a library example many years ago.

Am surprised you found the Gibbs book glamourised and gung ho. I found it completely the opposite. I felt he had a remarkable ability to express what he felt and observed and, I reckon, understated his involvement in things. One of these days I'll look into his fellow pilots from those early North Sea Rover days - brave and phenomenal characters.

 

Funnily enough, I just read about Geoffrey Wellum as he was part of 92 Sqn at the start of 1941 (having joined in May 1940) - The Biggin Hill Wing 1941 - From Defence to Attack by Peter Caygill. Known as "Boy" due to his youthful good looks, he stayed until early August '41 and was awarded the DFC.