Flying Colours

Ref: 4085

SOLD In stock

Price: £6.00

sadly, flyingbooks is now closed.

{detailed description}On 14 December, 1991, it will be sixty years exactly since Douglas Bader - then a brilliant 21-year-old pilot officer in the Royal Air Force - crashed near Reading in a Bristol Bulldog fighter and lost both legs. From then until his death at the age of 72 in 1982, he was to become an international figure, colourful and controversial - leader of Churchill's Few in the Battle of Britain, a German prisoner-of-war, a successful businessman, inspiration of the disabled, writer, public speaker and friend of many of the world's statesmen, from Smuts to Churchill, from Menzies to Wilson.
In this intimate and lively biography - authorised by Bader himself in his lifetime and supplemented by his private papers, flying log books, personal notes and photographs - Laddie Lucas reviews the extraordinary life of one of England's greatest heroes. The book contains a new and controversial assessment of the Battle of Britain: the author exposes for the first time Douglas Bader's tactical concept of the battle and his critics are decisively answered with facts and fresh official evidence.
There never was a life quite like Bader's - in war or in peace - and author Laddie Lucas is uniquely placed to tell his story. A distinguished Royal Air Force fighter leader in World War II, he was related to Bader by marriage and has an unrivalled fund of personal, untold stories about him.

P. B. Lucas CBE, DSO, DFC
The author has enjoyed an unusually varied life. After training as a journalist in Fleet Street, he became a distinguished wartime leader in the Royal Air Force, commanding the top-scoring fighter squadron in the Battle of Malta in 1942.
He was one of Britain's best-known amateur golfers, leading his country against the United States. A former Ibry member of Parliament, he represented Brentford and Chiswick in the House of Commons for ten years in the 1950s, serving under Churchill, Eden and Macmillan.
In 1976, Laddie Lucas retired from commercial life and the chairmanship of a public company and turned again to writing. He has now published eight books and in this, his third and highly successful work, he uses a lifetime's experience to understand and portray the career of the legendary and sometimes controversial character he knew intimately for nearly forty years.
{Author / Publisher / Date}by Laddie Lucas
published by 1990 reprint (of 1981 1st) 303pp illustrated, index, appendix. 16x24 paperback
{condition}slightly yellowed, some wear to extremities, otherwise good.
{delivery info}