What I am missing (although it's so small it could be sandwiched somewhere) is a signed copy of Fredrick (sic) Forsyth's The Shepherd which, although fiction, possibly is not.......
I wrote that in my 19 December 2002 post. Am extremely pleased to report having found the wayward book, sandwiched inbetween two others in plastic protection. Yippeeee!
FF wrote in it....
'For Alan
with all best wishes
Freddie Forsyth
29-10-79'
It's an excellent read, albeit a tiny text, because half of the book is full of wonderful illustrations by one Lou ****, Vampire, Mosquito, moody stuff.
The grin on my face will last for the next three years at least!
I meanwhile got three of Marc Gallai's books, translated into German and signed by him, through the good offices of Ulrich Unger. I had the pleasure of meeting Marc on a number of occasions,ILA Berlin, MAKS 95, once accompanied by Madame Gromova, wife of the man for whom the flight test institute (TsaGi)at Zhukowski is named. M.M. Gromov set a world record in September 1934 in one of the new ANT-25 aircraft built specially for long distance flightsand for the polar fleet, 12411 km in 75 hrs 2 min. The ANT-25 was exhibited at the 15th Paris Air Show, I guess in 1937. Gromov then broke another record, in USSR NO-25-1, on a transpolar flight of 10148 kms in a straight line....!
Ulrich Unger wrote about these and other pioneering Soviet achievements in his book 'Abenteur sowjetischer Flieger' published in 1987 by the Militaerverlag der DDR, ISBN 3-327-00306-8.
From this book I learn that Russia produced 27 Catalinas in Taganrog under the name GST and which were integrated into the Polar fleet as type MP-7. A further Cat was purchased in 1938 to search for the crew under Lewanewski who perished in TB-3 USSR N-209 on its way to the USA.
Any other good reads?
cheers
atb