BOOK OF AIRMEN'S OBITUARIES

by Edward Bishop, David Twiston Davies (Editor)

Over the past fifteen years Edward Bishop has written the obituaries of countless men and women who have figured in the story of civil and military aviation - numbers of whom he has known personally and 100 of the most fascinating of which appear here. Ranging from R. E. Bishop who designed the de Havilland Mosquito to Cheshire VC who flew 'the wooden wonder', to Tom Sopwith, the pioneer plane maker to Sir Frank Whittle, the jet engine pioneer, Bishop's obituaries reflect the glories and setbacks of aviation in peace and war.

Amid a host of pilots are Jeffrey Quill, Bob Stanford Tuck, Ginger Lacey, Adolf Galland, Johnnie Johnson, Babe Learoyd, a bomber VC, Freddie West, a 1914-1918 VC and Peter Townsend. Here, too, are Monique Agazarian, an Air Transport Auxiliary pilot who on VE day flew the length of Piccadilly at low level in a Spitfire, and Constance Babington-Smith whose brilliant interpretation of photo-recce results was a byword. Also featured are lesser-known heroes such as Jimmy Wright, the combat aerial cameraman blinded on active service who was to become a famed 'Guinea Pig' and film producer.

Written with wit, insight, compassion and humour, here is a richly unpredictable medley of colorful personalities.

512 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Nate]

This is a random book, I get it. And you’re thinking…”five stars?? For this??” But for what it is, it’s really well done. If these are the no shit obits for these people, then we have been doing people dirty in the states.
That or I don’t read obituaries enough to judge.
Either way, delightful to read so many personal stories in as much depth as you can muster when covering so many heroes.

[Robert Bagnall]

Probably an unfair criticism to say that it all gets a bit samey given, inevitably, the majority of these lives overlapped significantly, and there's only so many ways to write an obit, plus all the low hanging fruit has already been picked by earlier anthologies. Less pig-sticking that the other military-themed volumes, which is nice, but neither are there many truly memorable moments - or, perhaps, I'm jaded by the weight of heroics, near misses and close shaves?