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The Complete Flying Officer X Stories

HE Bates author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:14th Jun '18

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Complete Flying Officer X Stories cover

At thirty-four, H.E. Bates was deemed too old for active service in WWII. But as a successful author, was commissioned by the nascent RAP Public Relations unit to publicise the bravery of the fighter pilots. Bates was posted to Oakington and Tangmere air bases where, over drinks with the pilots, he gathered their stories and wrote them as Flying Officer X.

The stories convey the pilots' personal qualities and the forces that motivated them. They blend the action and suspense of aerial battles, the tragedy of friendships cut off too soon, and life enduring against all odds.

Collected into one volume for the first time, along with five previously unpublished stories from the era, this is a remarkable collection.

Includes an introduction by Patrick Bishop, bestselling author of Bomber Boys: Fighting Back 1940-1945

A picture of the bomber pilot as near to the truth as we on the outside are likely to get * New Statesman *
No other book on the British flier—or any other flier for that matter—has the sharp, authentic note Flying Officer Bates has written into his work … If there were decorations for this sort of thing, H. E. Bates would have the highest * New York Times *
His material is, of course, magnificent, and he makes very moving use of it * Spectator *

ISBN: 9781448217366

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 392g

246 pages