About this ebook
Fresh from school in June 1916, Lieutenant Oliver Paxton's first solo flight is to lead a formation of biplanes across the Channel to join Hornet Squadron in France.
Five days later, he crash-lands at his destination, having lost his map, his ballast and every single plane in his charge. To his C.O. he's an idiot, to everyone else - especially the tormenting Australian who shares his billet - a pompous bastard.
This is 1916, the year of the Somme, giving Paxton precious little time to grow from innocent to veteran.
Fresh from school in June 1916, Lieutenant Oliver Paxton's first solo flight is to lead a formation of biplanes across the Channel to join Hornet Squadron in France.
Five days later, he crash-lands at his destination, having lost his map, his ballast and every single plane in his charge. To his ...
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Ratings and reviews
8 reviews
Philip Vince
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June 30, 2016
Required reading for every generation. I finished this book on 30th June 2016, 100 years to the day after the battle of the Somme. Living now, it is impossible to imagine the conditions that the combatants existed under. Wonderful dialogue and historical accuracy make a gripping story, and you feel that you know the characters. The contrast of the environment on the airfield with the parties and the horror of the battles above is a theme that carries on in the authors second world war books too.
Richard Brown
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August 2, 2019
Following Paxton's arrival at a front line RFC Aerodrome in France as a naive pilot, the book describes in vivid detail what it's like to be a newcomer into a Sqn of entitled, privileged, just out of school Airmen. His enthusiasm and excitement gradually get suppressed by the reality of the events around him as he quite swiftly moves up the Mess dining table's ranking system. For the reader introduced to the Sqn members (and their individual peculiarities) it feels personal as one by one they are despatched
Eric Ramsay
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April 25, 2015
Gritty and savagely funny in equal measure. Can't wait to read the next one in the trilogy.
About the author
Derek Robinson read history at Cambridge before working in advertising in London and New York. Goshawk Squadron was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1971.
Derek Robinson read history at Cambridge before working in advertising in London and New York. Goshawk Squadron was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1971.
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