Fictional Novels of the Great War in the Air (a list)

[karrart]

Keep the cover art coming! I love that stuff.
Robert Karr
OLD BIRDS STAYING ALIVE - THE AVIATION ART OF ROBERT KARR

[jastaflieger]

Pete-
that cover you show is by none other than Brian Knight!
Jim W.

[Gregvan]

Hi,

Here's some more covers:


Of course, "No Parachute" isn't fiction, but since Pete already posted some non-fiction covers I guess it's OK. The cover is sort of fiction, though, since it has an unfortunate Sopwith Pup being shot down by a Fokker D.VII - in some sort of time warp! The cover is by Ed Valigursky, a very prolific paperback cover artist, best known for his science fiction stuff. The cover of "Falcons of France" may also be by Valigursky - I can't be sure. It features the almost-requisite red Fokker Tripes, but at least has a SPAD XIII in French markings - appropriate to the book.

[Pete Hill]

Hi Greg,

thanks for the covers! I had never heard of these two but now I want to read them both! I have just ordered a used copy of Falcons of France on ebay and I am trying to track down No Parachute.
I will try and dig up some more cover art.
Cheers, Pete

["Junior"]

Originally Posted by Pete Hill

Hi Greg,

I am trying to track down No Parachute.

You won't regret it, a magnificient book. His "Open Cockpit" is also a damn fine read but tends to go for hefty prices now.

[Peter Dron]

A while ago, in a thread now padlocked, someone mentioned the biography of V.M. Yeates, Winged Victor by Gordon F. Atkin, wishing to know whether it was any good. I'd like to know the answer to that, but it would help if I could read the book first. I have sent several e-mails to Mr Atkin's website, but he has not replied. A couple of months ago, I tried ordering through Amazon. Apparently, the book is "not available at the moment." Does anyone know anything about this? For example, is Mr Atkin - how can one put this? - still with us?

[alex_revell]

Peter
The book is available from the C&C International website.
It's well worth getting.
Regards
Alex

[Peter Dron]

Thanks. I shall try that.

[Breguet]

Originally Posted by alex_revell

Peter The book is available from the C&C International website. It's well worth getting. Regards Alex

I'll second that, as I've said in another thread, this one is definitely a keeper!! Well worth the read and seeing the story behind the story.

[Peter Dron]

I cannot find C&C International on the web. Does anyone have a link?


By the way, I first read Winged Victory about 30 years ago, and I was struck then by a similarity in tone between that book's last paragraph and the ending of Homage to Catalonia (below). I wonder if Orwell was 'inspired' by Yeates...



And then England – southern England, probably the sleekest landscape in the world. It is difficult when you pass that way, especially when you are peacefully recovering from sea-sickness with the plush cushions of a boat-train carriage under your bum, to believe that anything is really happening anywhere. Earthquakes in Japan, famines in China, revolutions in Mexico? Don’t worry, the milk will be on the doorstep tomorrow morning, the New Statesman will come out on Friday. The industrial towns were far away, a smudge of smoke and misery hidden by the curve of the earth’s surface. Down here it was still the England I had known in my childhood: the railway-cuttings smothered in wild flowers, the deep meadows where the great shining horses browse and meditate, the slow-moving streams bordered by willows, the green bosoms of the elms, the larkspurs in the cottage gardens; and then the huge peaceful wilderness of outer London, the barges on the miry river, the familiar streets, the posters telling of cricket matches and Royal weddings, the men in bowler hats, the pigeons in Trafalgar Square, the red buses, the blue policemen—all sleeping the deep, deep sleep of England, from which I sometimes fear that we shall never wake till we are jerked out of it by the roar of bombs.