The author, who lives in the next door-but-one village to me in Wiltshire, decided to research the many aviation memorials in the County on his retirement. Six years later this project developed into a massive tome on all aspects of aeronautics in the County. An enormous amount of work has resulted in an entrancing work of scholarship that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

Every airfield has been listed, described, mapped and photographed. For example, a field in Alton Barnes (just over the Kennet and Avon Canal), became a practice forced landing ground in 1935, the farmer being paid £50 a year to keep his animals off it from 5.30am until 4.30pm weekdays, and a further 15/- (75p) for any damage done by the RAF. It got upgraded to a Relief Landing Ground in 1941. Every incident there is recorded together with pictures, maps, (including a German aero-photograph taken in 1940). Every memorial gets the same treatment, and all the famous (and not so famous) airmen involved get pithy little biographies as well. For example, having just reviewed a biography of Sir Frederick Sykes (34/4), I have learnt that he eventually settled in Conock Manor (about 4 miles from here), buying the house from the Smith Barry family. There is a Memorial in the local church at Chirton, which is pictured together with its wording and date of dedication. The biographical essay about him is a masterpiece of pithy fact and opinion, with a photograph of the great man from the archive of his son Bonar (Sykes married Prime Minister Bonar Law’s daughter). And the whole book is as detailed and accurate as this. Wiltshire has always been right at the centre of military aviation, and now has a worthy record of its past and present. This book is big and heavy, but is going with me whenever I explore my local surroundings.