France, 1914.

The war on the land is taking to the skies.

Pilot Tom Cundall is ready to take on the enemy in his trusty Camel fighter plane.

But as he sees more and more planes shot down in flames, he begins to question the war, and what, or who, he is fighting for.

There is no bitter snarl nor self-pity in this classic novel about the air war of 1914-1918, based very largely on the author’s experiences.

Combat, loneliness, fatigue, fear, comradeship, women, excitement — they all are part of a brilliantly told story of war and courage by one of the most valiant pilots of the then Royal Flying Corps.

‘Beautifully written with a poet’s eye as well as a pilot’s eye.’ - Evening Echo.

‘The only book about flying that isn’t flannel.’ - Anonymous Fighter Pilot, 1941

‘Not only one of the best war books … but as a transcription of reality, faithful and sustained in its author’s purpose of re-creating the past life he knew, it is unique.’ -Henry Williamson, author of Tarka the Otter.

Victor Maslin Yeates (30 September 1897 — 15 December 1934), often abbreviated to V. M. Yeates, was a British fighter pilot in World War I, who wrote what is widely regarded as one of the most realistic and moving accounts of aerial combat and the futility of war.