This is not a tale of flying aces or great heroics. Set against the unfolding backdrop of the Second World War, it is the story of an ordinary young ground crew airman living through extraordinary times and a long way from home. Told largely through his personal diaries and letters, The Flying Erk charts the highs and lows of Leading Aircraftman Ray Roberts’s war-time experiences. It shows why he volunteers for the RAF, leaving behind his family and his girl. From his home town in Staffordshire, it follows Ray’s journey through basic training and a two-month circuitous sea voyage before recounting his contributions to the North Africa campaign and the relief of Malta (“the most bombed place on earth”). Living conditions are harsh and illness rife, the work gruelling and often dangerous. But close friendships, shared humour and thoughts of a better future inspired by mail from home provide welcome respites from the hardships and toil. And then there’s Dim the Wonder Dog. At its heart is a love story, revealing the stages of a budding romance between two people kept apart by war. At first glance it’s a familiar picture: boy meets girl, boy leaves for war, love develops at a distance. But things do not stay that simple: circumstances and people change. It’s a love story with a difference. World War 2 was a long and bloody conflict in which few lives were left untouched and whose outcomes reverberate to this day. From the outbreak of hostilities in 1939 to the Allied victory in 1945, the main developments of that conflict are tracked and their impact on Ray, his girl and their relationship clearly seen.

This term, Berk (Good Knight), Godwin (Bad Knight) and Warren are working on a flying machine that will hopefully take Godwin home to visit his parents, who are fighting cow-thieving pirates. Their test flights always seem to end in disaster though, so the boys try to enlist the help of Warren's supremely talented sister Willow. But after spending years trapped underground battling evil hordes, Willow is more interested in knuckling down to her schoolwork. She's especially interested in Beast Taming classes, and there is one beast she particularly interested in - an irate, stinky dragon with a dangerous grudge. Hold onto your helmets for a new armour rattling adventure from Tom Knight!

The accepted canon of war poetry usually includes only those underlining patriotic or nationalistic views. This study opens up the view of war poetry with the inclusion of such material as Nazi poetry and song, and the poetry of the atomic bomb.

Highlights include several chapters on the Mediterranean air forces, with special emphasis placed on the brave but futile attempts of the South African Air Force Liberator crews in Italy to supply Polish patriots during the Warsaw uprising. Individual chapters covering various aspects of the war in the Mediterranean, Malta and the Western Desert are told by the combatants themselves in crisp unerring detail. The author recounts the thrilling RAF Wellington and Liberator bombing and resupply operations from Italy, before following the action to the Far East and the combats between the RAF and the Japanese Imperial Air Force.The story of some of the bravest Blenheim sorties and dog fights with Japanese Zeroes are uniquely related by the crews and the Japanese pilots. Numerous stories of the part played by the RAF and Royal Australian Air Force Liberator crews operating over the jungles of iam, Malaya and Singapore feature, as does the story of the famous Yangtze Incident, which involved HMS Amethysts precarious and dangerous voyage down the Yangtze River in the face of opposition from Chinese forces.The book is illustrated with never before seen images of RAF, SAAF, RAAF and USAAF aircraft and their crews. It serves to commemorate the many acts of bravery, endurance and heroism that characterized this time.