I can distinctly remember being asked at school...aged about 10, who my favourite author was...
Well I'd just read Neville Duke's Test Pilot for the second time......and so said Neville Duke.
The teacher promptly wrote Neville Shute on the blackboard.....
When I could catch the teachers attention I pointed out that it wasn't Neville Shute (who at that time I had never heard of....as at 10...I only read serious books.....you know the type)..
Anyway...net result...a detention for arguing...canning etc....and all because I had to damn well insist that there really was a pilot called Neville Duke who wrote a book about Test Pilots...and it was a lot better than any fictional Neville Shute....
I became a Flight Test Engineer...... I got to fly a few times in fast jets...I've made a very good and interesting life in aviation...and have seen the world.
I never met Neville Duke.....
He was the most influential man in my life.....
Thank you Neville Duke. RIP