This is a monumental work of scholarship from our Deputy Editor. It begins with a quick history of the founding and all too short life of the Company, and then details very comprehensively all its many aeroplanes and what happened to them and where. I wish for more.

For example, there is not nearly enough about the reclusive founder of the Company, the great but unknown George Holt Thomas. He was a newspaperman who having met Henri Farman, realised the military potential of the aeroplane. He founded the Company to promote that potential, but never put his name to it, or its products. When he discovered a talented young designer, Geoffrey de Havilland, it was his name that was used and immortalised in, for example, the DH4. When the Company folded at the end of the War, de Havilland, financed by Thomas, started up and took over the reins. That eventually gave us the Moths, the Mosquito and the Comet. That Company was merged into Hawker Siddeley in 1960.

When we come onto the descriptions of the actual aircraft, I could not wish for more details. Beautifully illustrated and produced, this section of the book is a credit to the scholarship of the author. But I found it difficult to read. The format is of a narrative with boxes in it which for me destroy the continuity. For example, on page 39 there is a box headed LWB Rees - the Victoria Cross Winner in the middle of a chapter called The DH2 - The First True British Fighter. The box does not tell the reader how Rees won his VC; that is in the narrative on page 40. I also found fault with the Index. I looked up Marham and found two references: pages 91 and 173. Marham is not mentioned at all on page 91 (Manston is) and is on page 174 not 173.

I do not wish to quibble further about a book which no World War I aviation enthusiast should be without. It also looks good and would grace any bookshelf.