Sigh for a Merlin is a great book. Every time I drive past Hams Hall power station in the Midlands I recall his story – with solid overcast it was possible to spot the bubble in the top of the layer made by the rising air from the cooling towers and by flying over this on a precise heading and rate of descent the aircraft broke out of the cloud (often at under 200’) on finals for Castle Bromwich. This was quite often done deadstick after a series of prop drive failures – the Spitfires were needed too urgently for the pilot to play safe and bail out. Talk about quality skills……
'Testing Times' by Roly Beaumont is also a good read. Covers all the pre-squadron testing of the Lightning and all the testing of the TSR2.