The Boys' Own Battle of Britain

by Peter Cross

In a fun-packed celebration of the Battle of Britain, artist Peter Cross recounts the events of the summer of 1940 in a series of paintings. He depicted "our finest hour" as the last great "Boy's Own" adventure restaging it as a home match in which the swinnish bovver boys of St Hitla's take on the underdog home team of our lads from Biggin Hill School. As the match proceeds the reader will meet the leaders of both sides - the home team's shrewd senior housemaster Mr Dowdy and respected headmaster , Mr Winston, and the opposition's fiendish Mr Adolfus and loathsome Fatty Goering. Although the competition is fierce and the weaponry formidable - Spitfire bicycles and the Meshermschmitt motor mowers - in the end at the final whistle, "the few" are victorious. Peter Cross has also illustrated "Trouble for Trumpets" and "And All This".

32 pages, Hardcover

First published June 6, 1990

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. ^^^^^

Peter Cross is a British artist and illustrator.
Peter Cross was born in Guildford, Surrey, in 1951. He trained as a Technical Illustrator at Hawker Siddeley, but soon set up his own studio and from 1975 began to emerge as an imaginative illustrator of great originality. From 1977 he produced the artwork for a number of albums by Anthony Phillips, the former Genesis guitarist.

He made his name with eleven children’s books which delighted children and parents alike with their humorous detail. These include the cult classic ‘Trouble for Trumpets’ (1982), the series ‘Dinosaur Days’ (1985) and ‘The Adventures of Dudley Dormouse’ (1986-87). Subsequently, he responded directly to adults’ interest in his work by producing the hilarious updated histories ‘1588 and All This…’(1988) and ‘The Boys’ Own Battle of Britain’ (1990).