This past weekend, I picked up a secondhand copy of Clive Du Cros' 1993 book,
Birth of a Spitfire: a Remarkable Story of One Man's Determination to Build and Fly His Very Own Spitfire. I haven't yet had a chance to more than glance at it, but it looks like a pretty good read, along the lines of John Isaacs'
Aeroplane Affair: An Aeronautical Autobiography.
You can see some (not very good) photos of the Du Clos Spitfire
here, and
this recent article may also be of interest.
MLS-12D