The Sky Suspended

"A haunting book...brilliant." - Financial Times "As poignant a piece of aviation literature as I have ever read." - Sunday Correspondent "It is worthy to stand with the best of air-war memoirs. I've never read a book that was anything like it." - Samuel Hynes, (author of Flights of Passage) A unique memoir both of the war in the air and of life on the home front. While studying at Oxford University in the warm summer of 1939, Jim Bailey knew that war with Germany was looming. From a world of books and words, the 19-year-old saw that this was his moment to grasp something more real and, despite his fear of combat, he signed up to train as a pilot for the Royal Air Force and defend his country. Bailey flew fighters throughout World War II, from the Battle of Britain through Gibraltar and the Anzio beach-head to the landing in the South of France. This engrossing true story of youthful heroism and survival against the odds is a first hand view of the most thrilling yet harrowing of times.