In November 1940, a remarkable prototype aircraft made its maiden flight from an airstrip north of London. Novel in construction and exceptionally fast, the new plane was soon outpacing the Spitfire, and went on to contribute to the RAF's offensive against Nazi Germany as bomber, pathfinder and night fighter. The men who flew it nicknamed this most flexible of aircraft 'the wooden wonder' for its composite wooden frame and superb performance. Its more familiar name was the de Havilland Mosquito, and it used lightning speed and agility to inflict mayhem on the German war machine. From the summer of 1943, as Bomber Command intensified its saturation bombing of German cities, Mosquitos were used by the Pathfinder Force, which marked targets for night-time bombing, to devastating effect. Mosquito Men traces the contrasting careers of the young men of 627 Squadron, including that of Ken Oatley – last living member of an illustrious group – who flew twenty-two operations in Mosquitos as a navigator. David Price's atmospheric narrative interweaves the human stories of the crews of 627 Squadron with events in the wider war as the Allies closed in on Germany from the summer of 1944. Mosquito Men is rich in evocative and technically authoritative accounts of individual missions flown by an aircraft that ranks alongside the Spitfire, the Hurricane and the Lancaster as one of the RAF's greatest ever flying machines – and perhaps the most versatile warplane ever built. For those fans of the Mosquito aircraft recently described by Rowland White, Mosquito Men will add the human element to this iconic plane.

We tell ourselves there's nothing to fear - but sometimes, we're wrong. After a woman bangs at the door in the middle of the night, and promptly dies from her injury, a couple's remote cabin getaway becomes a psychological night of terror as they are hunted by an unknown assailant. Now they must go far beyond what they thought themselves capable of if they hope to save their young children and survive until morning.

A collection of stories based on the author's experiences as a mosquito exterminator.

**The instant New York Times bestseller.** *An international bestseller.* Finalist for the Lane Anderson Award Finalist for the RBC Taylor Award “Hugely impressive, a major work.”—NPR A pioneering and groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction that offers a dramatic new perspective on the history of humankind, showing how through millennia, the mosquito has been the single most powerful force in determining humanity’s fate Why was gin and tonic the cocktail of choice for British colonists in India and Africa? What does Starbucks have to thank for its global domination? What has protected the lives of popes for millennia? Why did Scotland surrender its sovereignty to England? What was George Washington's secret weapon during the American Revolution? The answer to all these questions, and many more, is the mosquito. Across our planet since the dawn of humankind, this nefarious pest, roughly the size and weight of a grape seed, has been at the frontlines of history as the grim reaper, the harvester of human populations, and the ultimate agent of historical change. As the mosquito transformed the landscapes of civilization, humans were unwittingly required to respond to its piercing impact and universal projection of power. The mosquito has determined the fates of empires and nations, razed and crippled economies, and decided the outcome of pivotal wars, killing nearly half of humanity along the way. She (only females bite) has dispatched an estimated 52 billion people from a total of 108 billion throughout our relatively brief existence. As the greatest purveyor of extermination we have ever known, she has played a greater role in shaping our human story than any other living thing with which we share our global village. Imagine for a moment a world without deadly mosquitoes, or any mosquitoes, for that matter? Our history and the world we know, or think we know, would be completely unrecognizable. Driven by surprising insights and fast-paced storytelling, The Mosquito is the extraordinary untold story of the mosquito’s reign through human history and her indelible impact on our modern world order.

We tell ourselves there's nothing to fear - but sometimes, we're wrong. After a woman bangs at the door in the middle of the night, and promptly dies from her injury, a couple's remote cabin getaway becomes a psychological night of terror as they are hunted by an unknown assailant. Now they must go far beyond what they thought themselves capable of if they hope to save their young children and survive until morning.

'Consider the most common mosquito on Earth. This soft, little, dusty-brown insect is Culex Pipiens. You've seen her land on your arm. You have caught her just at the end of her feeding, her translucent belly swelling red with your very own blood. At such a moment, you can be forgiven for failing to notice what an elegant and hardy thing she is. But she is . . . ' No creature has touched directly the lives of more human beings than the mosquito. She has been a nuisance, a pollinator of plants and an angel of death all over the globe. And throughout history, much of our trouble with the mosquito has been caused by man himself. Professor Andrew Spielman has dedicated his life to understanding this insect. In Mosquito he tells the story of man's struggle to live with the mosquito, from the defeat of Sir Francis Drake's fleet, to the death of thousands of Frenchmen working on the Panama Canal and to the recent panic over the West Nile Virus in New York. And he shows us how we have accelerated the spread of disease, describing the catastrophic failures of mosquito control which have ensured that - even now - one person dies of malaria every twelve seconds.