Love, Death, Chariot of Fire

Book excerpt: Reg Mitchell is a modest, decent man with a gift for designing fast aeroplanes. Two horrors seek him out — terminal illness, and Nazi Germany’s predicted invasion of his country. His response will change the course of world history. 'Here is a splendid love story of maker for machine: an inventor’s single-minded devotion to his imperilled country, and to the fighter plane that he hopes will save it. Winton Higgins handles the origin story of the Spitfire with the surefootedness of the historian, and eloquence of the poet. His drama of creation is made all the more poignant by its backdrop of destruction: the collective destruction of war, and the personal destruction of the cancer that Mitchell attempts to outpace just long enough to get the job done.' — Sara Knox, author of The Orphan Gunner 'If you love aeroplanes — and even if you don’t — this book is a must. There is a saying among pilots ‘if it looks good it will fly well’ and there can be no better example than the Supermarine Spitfire, the graceful and deadly British superhero of World War II. The Spitfire evolved into a fighter plane that could out-climb, out-run, out-turn and out-fight anything in the sky. Pilots didn’t like the Spitfire, they loved it. Winton Higgins has written a fluent and brilliantly researched story of the Spitfire’s designer Reg Mitchell, and the creation of a unique classic aircraft. Spellbinding!' — Peter Grose, author of A Good Place to Hide