Review, buy Political: First Light, Forgotten Voices of the Great War: A New History of WWI in the Words of the Men and Women Who Were There (Forgotten Voices/the Great War), Bess of Hardwick: First Lady of Chatsworth, Afghanistan, Where God Only Comes to Weep, The Wicked Wit of Winston Churchill, Princess, The Islamist: Why I Joined Radical Islam in Britain, What I Saw Inside and Why I Left, Angler: The Shadow Presidency of Dick Cheney, Mao: The Unknown Story, My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Penguin Modern Classics), Cameron on Cameron: Conversations with Dylan Jones, More Time for Politics: Diaries 2001-2007, A Daughter's Love: Thomas and Margaret More, Elizabeth, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Dover Thrift), Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900-1925 (Virago classic non-fiction), Ettie: The Intimate Life And Dauntless Spirit Of Lady Desborough: The Intimate Life and Dauntless Spirit of Lady Desborough, British Politics, Night (Penguin twentieth century classics)

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First Light (Penguin Books Ltd)

Authors

Geoffrey Wellum

Edition: New edition
Publication date: 2003-05-01
Dewey code: 355
RRP: ~~£8.99~~
Price: £3.28

Review First Light / Penguin Books Ltd:

Surviving Battle of Britain fighter aces were thin on the ground even in 1941, so any new book more than 60 years later from a previously unknown pilot is bound to get noticed. And First Light is not just any book. It might not turn out to be a lasting classic, like Richard Hillary's The Last Enemy or Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, but it is a cut well above the bog standard wartime reminiscences of many retired military bods. For a start Wellum can write, but more than this he has an instinctive feel for a good story. He begins First Light as a fresh-faced, rather obnoxious public schoolboy keen to blag his way into the RAF in March 1939; just three years, two full tours on Spitfires, the Battle of Britain, nearly 100 escorts and fighter sweeps over occupied France and a Malta convoy later, Wellum was physically and mentally burnt out before the age of 22. An old man in a boy's body. His descriptions of the excitement, freedom and, at times, sheer terror of operating in a three-dimensional airspace are vividly powerful, but perhaps his greatest gift is to get across the way the fatigue and the emotional shutting off creeps up unnoticed. At the start, the death of a friend leaves Wellum devastated and wondering when his turn will come; within the space of a few hundred pages, the failure of a pilot to return is dropped in almost as an afterthought. This is not the response of a man who cares too little, but of one who cares too much. Without being aware of it, he has experienced and felt too much and his mind and body have involuntarily separated. [+]

This comes into even sharper relief at the end when Wellum is stood down from active service; he is the only one not to see-quite literally, as his vision has become impaired-that his ailments are rooted in his psyche rather than his body. The only one false note is his desire to see his role as part of a bigger picture; written many years after the events he describes, Wellum sometimes interjects thoughts and feelings about the war that simply do not ring true. That aside, one is left wondering what became of Wellum the man between the war ending and the book's publication. What sense did the prematurely aged fighter pilot make of the post-war age and did he learn to love again? But that, maybe, is the subject for another book. -John Crace.

Review First Light / Penguin Books Ltd:

Review Forgotten Voices of the Great War: A New History of WWI in the Words of the Men and Women Who Were There (Forgotten Voices/the Great War) / Ebury Press:

Review Bess of Hardwick: First Lady of Chatsworth / Abacus:

Review Afghanistan, Where God Only Comes to Weep / Century:

Review The Wicked Wit of Winston Churchill / Michael O'Mara Books Ltd:

Review Princess / Bantam Books:

Review The Islamist: Why I Joined Radical Islam in Britain, What I Saw Inside and Why I Left / Penguin Books Ltd:

Review Angler: The Shadow Presidency of Dick Cheney / Allen Lane:

Review Mao: The Unknown Story / Vintage:

Review My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism / Pan Books:

Review The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Penguin Modern Classics) / Penguin Classics:

Review Cameron on Cameron: Conversations with Dylan Jones / Fourth Estate Ltd:

Review More Time for Politics: Diaries 2001-2007 / Arrow Books Ltd:

Review A Daughter's Love: Thomas and Margaret More / Fourth Estate Ltd:

Review Elizabeth / Vintage:

Review Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Dover Thrift) / Dover Publications Inc.:

Review Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900-1925 (Virago classic non-fiction) / Virago Press Ltd:

Review Ettie: The Intimate Life And Dauntless Spirit Of Lady Desborough: The Intimate Life and Dauntless Spirit of Lady Desborough / Weidenfeld & Nicolson:

Review British Politics / OUP Oxford:

Review Night (Penguin twentieth century classics) / Penguin Classics: