If you read last week’s reread feature on Piece of Cake, you’ll be aware that certain elements of Derek Robinson’s novel are said to be inspired by real life characters and events and one book that is often mentioned in the same breath as Piece of Cake is Fighter Pilot, by Paul Richey. However, whereas Piece of Cake is an entertaining work of fiction, Fighter Pilot is the real-life account of a Hurricane squadron in the Battle of France.
Fighter Pilot, is based on the personal diary extracts written by Paul Richey, who was a Flying Officer with number 1 Squadron at the start of WW2. Richey kept a diary during the war years and Fighter Pilot, is in his own words: “A personal record of the campaign in France 1939-1940” but it’s much more than that as the glowing reviews in our own copy, printed by Pan in 1977 testify. First printed anonymously, in 1941 by B. T. Batsford Ltd, The Times Literary Supplement declared: “No book published in this war gives a clearer picture of what air fighting is like… A grand story, told with the characteristic modesty of the British airman.” The Times Trade Supplement later agreed, declaring it to be: “Perhaps the most thrilling and instructive book ever written about aerial warfare.”
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