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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘An inspirational read celebrating the incredible young people who gave so much for this iconic British aircraft’. John Nichol, bestselling author of Spitfire: A Very British Love Story

Despite the many films and television programmes over the decades since the end of the Second World War that portrays our allied heroes as grown-up men and women, the Battle of Britain was in the main actually fought and won by teenagers. The average age of an RAF fighter pilot was just twenty years old. Many of the men and women who designed and built their planes were even younger.

Based on the hit BBC World Service podcast Spitfire: The People’s Story, we use contemporary diaries and memoirs, many of them previously unpublished, to tell the story of the Spitfire through the voices of the teenagers who risked everything to design, build and fly her.

This isn’t a story of stiff-upper lips, stoical moustaches and aerial heroics; it’s a story of love and loss, a story of young people tested to the very limits of their endurance. Young people who won a battle that turned a war.

Publisher Review

Draws on unpublished diaries and archive recordings to chronicle the extraordinary national effort to construct the fighter aircraft that gave the Allies a critical edge over the Luftwaffe. * The Times * A truly epic account of the actual and symbolic role the plane played in defending Britain in the Second World War. * Sunday Times * Tells the inspiring story of how ordinary citizens came together to build the famous Battle of Britain aircraft. * The Observer * The story of how these fast and lethal little planes helped win the Second World War is stirringly told in this new BBC series. * The Mail on Sunday * The story of how these fast and lethal little planes helped win the Second World War is stirringly told! * Daily Mail * The story of the Second World War's most famous plane is peppered with women - many of their stories untold in the decades since the conflict. * The Telegraph * An inspirational read celebrating the incredible young people who gave so much for this iconic British aircraft. * John Nichol, bestselling author of Spitfire: A Very British Love Story * Read Spitfire Kids and you'll start believing this plane has a pulse! * Tessa Dunlop, broadcaster and bestselling author of Century Girls *