Lancaster: The Forging of a Very British Legend

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They flew nearly 300,000 sorties and dropped around a million tons of explosives, as well as life-saving supplies. While the Lancaster is the spine of this book, Nichol ranges widely in his subject matter, the Chapter on Pilots of The Caribbean acknowledges the part played and the prejudices faced by black flyers volunteering for service in defence of a Great Britain despite the rising pressures for independence at home.

He touches too on the domestic lives of the flyers, the febrile atmosphere of young men and women living their lives at a time of national and personal peril snatching moments of comfort and intimacy where they could.Our approach is based on a library vision Towards 2025, that expresses our firm commitment to be innovative and inclusive in all we do, and a desire to connect with and bring people together.

As stated earlier, it is the people's accounts of their experience of the war through their relationship with the Avro Lancaster that is key to this book. Morecambe, the traditional seaside resort, its ‘Bring me Sunshine’ favourite son Eric Morecambe and Victoria Wood’s ‘two soups’ cafe.

It is mainly recorded in Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, and sometimes in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset. The author’s style of writing brings home in graphic detail the life of this aircraft and its crews, in a way that makes it both emotional and a pleasure to read. Nichol is also not shy of relating the sheer physical and mental cruelty of the war in the air as fought by the Lancaster's crews, nor indeed what their bombing menat to them and to those on the ground.

Ploughlands, carucates, hides: A ploughland ( terra carucis or carucata) was the area that could be ploughed by eight oxen in a year. This book would set them straight on how thousands of men were killed and families ripped apart in a war not of their making.Notorious Lancaster, known as the ‘Hanging Town’ for its use of the noose, with its fearsome castle cells that held Quaker maker George Fox. It was in fact the stories of the people who flew in the type, and those who were affected by its service during World War Two, who formed the bulk of the author's history. I had the honour of meeting one of the vets in the book who was volunteering at the Battle of Britain memorial flight near Woodhall Spa. Next to the Castle in a typical juxtaposition of Church and State stands the Priory church with its own history running back some twelve or thirteen centuries. I note that the book The Destruction of Dresden, by David Irving and published in 1963 was not included in the bibliography.