The Spitfire Kids
The generation who built, supported and flew Britain's most beloved fighter
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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
'An inspirational read celebrating the incredible young people who gave so much for this iconic British aircraft'. John Nichol, bestselling author of Spitfire: A Very British Love Story
Despite the many films and television programmes over the decades since the end of the Second World War that portrays our allied heroes as grown-up men and women, the Battle of Britain was in the main actually fought and won by teenagers. The average age of an RAF fighter pilot was just twenty years old. Many of the men and women who designed and built their planes were even younger.
Based on the hit BBC World Service podcast Spitfire: The People's Story, we use contemporary diaries and memoirs, many of them previously unpublished, to tell the story of the Spitfire through the voices of the teenagers who risked everything to design, build and fly her.
This isn't a story of stiff-upper lips, stoical moustaches and aerial heroics; it's a story of love and loss, a story of young people tested to the very limits of their endurance. Young people who won a battle that turned a war.
'An inspirational read celebrating the incredible young people who gave so much for this iconic British aircraft'. John Nichol, bestselling author of Spitfire: A Very British Love Story
Despite the many films and television programmes over the decades since the end of the Second World War that portrays our allied heroes as grown-up men and women, the Battle of Britain was in the main actually fought and won by teenagers. The average age of an RAF fighter pilot was just twenty years old. Many of the men and women who designed and built their planes were even younger.
Based on the hit BBC World Service podcast Spitfire: The People's Story, we use contemporary diaries and memoirs, many of them previously unpublished, to tell the story of the Spitfire through the voices of the teenagers who risked everything to design, build and fly her.
This isn't a story of stiff-upper lips, stoical moustaches and aerial heroics; it's a story of love and loss, a story of young people tested to the very limits of their endurance. Young people who won a battle that turned a war.
- Published: May 26 2022
- 196 x 128mm
- ISBN: 9781472281999
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Press Reviews
- The Times
Draws on unpublished diaries and archive recordings to chronicle the extraordinary national effort to construct the fighter aircraft that gave the Allies a critical edge over the Luftwaffe.
- Sunday Times
A truly epic account of the actual and symbolic role the plane played in defending Britain in the Second World War.
- The Observer
Tells the inspiring story of how ordinary citizens came together to build the famous Battle of Britain aircraft.
- The Mail on Sunday
The story of how these fast and lethal little planes helped win the Second World War is stirringly told in this new BBC series.
- The Telegraph
The story of the Second World War's most famous plane is peppered with women - many of their stories untold in the decades since the conflict.
- John Nichol, bestselling author of Spitfire: A Very British Love Story
An inspirational read celebrating the incredible young people who gave so much for this iconic British aircraft.
- Tessa Dunlop, broadcaster and bestselling author of Century Girls
Read Spitfire Kids and you'll start believing this plane has a pulse!
- The Herald
It is a story of heroism that goes beyond the spiffy moustaches and aerial acrobatics we have all seen in old movies, tapping into the verve and tenacity shown by a young workforce.