Winged Victor - a biography of VM Yeates by Gordon Atkin Illustrated softback edition of 240 pages ISBN 0-9546881-0-4 Winged Victor is a biography of Victor Maslin Yeates, a World War One Sopwith Camel pilot with Nos 46 & 80 Squadrons, whose novel Winged Victory is widely considered to be one of the classics on aerial warfare in the Great War. It is often quoted as an authoritative source as Yeates relied heavily on his own experiences of flying on the Western Front in 1918 during the German ‘March Push’ and the Allied offensive in August. Yeates wrote the book hoping to provide funds to maintain his wife and their four children when he became incapable of working due to TB, attributable to the strain of combat flying during the war. Written when he was in and out of sanatoriums, Winged Victory was finally published in June 1934, just six months before his death.   With the co-operation of his three surviving children who have provided access to family papers, Winged Victor also explores the factual aspects of Yeates’ book through a detailed examination of his log book entries, letters to his family and the official Squadron records held in the National Archives. The original manuscripts of both Winged Victory and Family Life (which he was writing when he died) are deposited with The University of Texas at Austin and these have also been consulted. This research gives an insight into how Yeates’ novel came to be written, from the original suggestion by his old school friend, the author Henry Williamson, to its eventual publication some fourteen months later, when it received high praise from T. E. Lawrence. Although it was not as successful as had been hoped when first published, it received the acclaim and success it deserved when it was reprinted in 1961, and since then has been reprinted several times, in both paperback and hardback. Guy Yeates, Victor’s son, has written the Foreword, and the book is illustrated with a map and over 70 photographs. An important inclusion in the Appendices is the text of a previously unseen chapter of Winged Victory omitted from the original publication. Buy Winged Victor here - the only place you can buy it on line! UK Overseas Surface Mail Overseas Airmail 15.45 GBP incl p&p 17.50 GBP incl p&p 19.95 GBP incl p&p Gordon Atkin was born in Kingston-upon-Hull in Yorkshire, but has lived in Lancashire for the past 40 years. He can trace his interest in aviation to the times his father took him out of the air-raid shelter – when Hull was being heavily bombed during the Second World War – to point out the ‘doodlebugs’ flying by. Now a retired bank manager, Gordon has been for many years a member of Cross & Cockade International, the First World War Aviation Historical Society, and is its current Treasurer.     Winged Victor is also available by post, direct from the author at: Springwater Books 12 Springwater Avenue Ramsbottom BURY BL0 9RH United Kingdom Email: ggatkin@tiscali.co.uk Credit cards or sterling cheques only via this method please, made payable to G Atkin Price 12.95 GBP plus post & packing at: 2.50 GBP UK 4.55 GBP overseas (surface mail) 7.00 GBP overseas (airmail)