I’VE had an email from a French anthropologist who lives in Croatia and collects helmets, as you do.
He’s found an old press photo on eBay of my second cousin, Barbara Gubbins, who was on track to be the RAF’s first woman pilot when she was killed in an air crash in 1952, age 20. It’s an image I’ve never seen before of Barbara in a cockpit wearing a flying helmet.
The email’s timing was strangely apt. Barbara was a fascinating and talented woman. I launched a website telling her story a few years ago – www.barbaragubbins.co.uk – and have been toying with turning it into an ebook as a follow-up to GUNNER.
And I’ve been surprised and pleased by the response to GUNNER, the ebook of my father’s war diary in Normandy, Holland and Germany. An American reviewer said: “One of the most unusual books I’ve read about a veteran.” All proceeds go to a military charity, the Not Forgotten Association.
The NFA is a tri-service charity that provides entertainment, leisure and recreation for serving men and women who are wounded, injured or sick and for ex-service personnel with disabilities. Take a look at www.nfassociation.org
I have another ebook history project on the go – the war dairy of Fred Gubbins. Fred was torpedoed in the Med in 1917 and killed just before Christmas in hand-to-hand fighting near Jerusalem, age 19. Watch out for more details.
AEROPLANE buffs and thousands of others have savoured that lump-in-the-throat moment in recent weeks with the UK tour of the last two flying Lancaster World War Two heavy bombers.
The Canadian VeRA travelled to the UK to fly with Thumper, the Lanc of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. The sight and sound of these two four-engined icons in formation was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
I had the pleasure and privilege of seeing them at Eastbourne. Sadly, engine trouble prevented VeRA from flying at the Shoreham. VeRA heads home this week. Safe journey.
THE cracking crime novels keep on coming. Anya Lipska’s Death Can’t Take A Joke, sequel to Where The Devil Can’t Go, continues the uneasy partnership of Met detective Natalie Kershaw and Polish private investigator Janusz Kiszka. The style is fast-paced, witty and informative and the Polish and East London settings vivid. It would make great TV. A series to watch.
www.facebook.com/DannyLancasterInvestigates
@williamjtodd
GUNNER: The diary of an ordinary soldier – all proceeds to a military charity
UK: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00LGSZQTU – only 77p
US: www.amazon.com/dp/B00LGSZQTU – only $1.26