I'm another Prouty fan. I'm sorry to say I've not met the gentleman, but have read all 4 of his books and found them all very clear, and the big-silver volume incredibly thorough (apart from this strange American habit of dropping ½ when calculating helicopter coefficients that confuses Brits and Europeans.)
The big-book is written for Engineers, or at-least people with a deep love of higher mathematics, and I wouldn't recommend it from a piloting perspective. The three "popular" volumes however I've yet to hear anything but praise for from either Engineers or Pilots.
Of the other three, I never managed to get hold of a copy of the first one "helicopter aerodynamics" but do have the other two. So, if anybody out there has a spare copy, I'd be delighted to buy, steal or swap.
G
N.B. At least the French entered the world cup - when are the Americans going to learn how to play Rugby properly, on grass and without constantly changing players in the middle of the game ?