John Nichol books
 

Hi
I have read the excellent book "Spitfire" by the above and it is superb and I have his book "Lancaster" hoping it is as good,. What I want to know is Does anyone know if he intends to do a book about the "Hurricane" ???

He's on twitter I think. Ask him.

He's on PPRuNe as well.....but without the J in his surname!

I asked him this a few days ago.....he said ‘Tornado’!

I recommended Spitfire on the good reads thread a while ago, it is an excellent book.

Looks like I shall also be buying Lancaster and Tornado too. Thanks.

If you look at the end of his Lancaster book, it tells you his next project is "Tornado".

You'd have thought that Mosquito, Hurricane or Vulcan would be more commercial.

But then again, AFAIK, he has not flown the Mossie, Hurricane or Vulcan!

He's not 'flown' anything, being self-loading freight!

What ever he chooses as his next subject I will be in line for copy. Very impressed with his "Spitfire" exposition, must have taken a huge amount of research and attention to detail.

Ouch :) Doesn't he use the phrase "flown in"?

Sometimes referred to as "former RAF pilot" in the press, etc. Not his fault, the average journo knows next to nothing about aircraft and as far as they are concerned anyone strapping himself (or herself) into a fast jet must be a pilot

Ex Ascoteer: Harsh, but fair. Someone took the hook!

My copy of Lancaster has just arrived and I'm looking forward immensely to reading it. If it is as good as Spitfire, then it will indeed be a great read.

The John Nichol I recall was an operational WSO on both F3 and IDS Tornado, being shot down, captured and interrogated during GW1. Hardly what one would call "Self loading freight".

57MM
You are ex forces? if so you should have been able to spot the humour in the statement

I must be getting old, as it didn't seem like the crewroom banter I used to know.

He is. And so am I and I didn't think it amusing "banter" either. More SLF? - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Mynarski

Agreed. I think it says much more about the type of person he is than the subject of his mean-spirited slurs.

Sadly, I think the current trend of being 'offended by everything' has reached the denizens of PPrune. As a member of the aforementioned 'self-loading freight' branch myself I genuinely had a bit of a chuckle when I read that comment. I can remember one of the 'Two Winged Master Race' saying that he'd rather have the extra 200lbs of fuel than fly with a Nav. But as one of my 'Single Wing' brethren pointed out to him '200lbs of fuel can't carry your bags off the aircraft, nor can it 'accompany' the ugly less attractive one of the pair of ladies that you meet in the hotel bar'!!

However, to get back to the Lancaster book being discussed (which I am currently reading)...I have to admit that as an aficionado of all things Bomber Command (and those of you who know me will know of my 'previous') I am disappointed in it. Unfortunately, it doesn't stand scrutiny with John's previous Bomber Command/Aviation books that I have read, such as 'The Last Escape', 'Tail End Charlies' and 'The Red Line'. 'Lancaster' appears to be a mish-mash of crew and raid-related anecdotes taken from his (and others') earlier books on Bomber Command. Worthy, incredible and moving though these stories are they don't actually address the books sub-title 'The Forging of a Very British Legend'. And, perhaps more disappointing, the accuracy of the research is sometimes lacking, as there are mistakes in dates, spellings of names, bombing techniques and details of raids etc.