Hurricane, Leo McKinstry
Hurricane, Leo McKinstry
List: $31.99 | Sale: $22.40
Club: $15.99

Hurricane
Victor of the Battle of Britain

Author: Leo McKinstry

Narrator: Peter Noble

Unabridged: 13 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: John Murray

Published: 05/24/2018


Synopsis

The biography of the aeroplane that won the Battle of Britain.

In the summer of 1940 the fate of Europe hung in the balance. Victory in the forthcoming air battle would mean national survival; defeat would establish German tyranny.

The Luftwaffe greatly outnumbered the RAF, but during the Battle of Britain it was the RAF that emerged triumphant, thanks to two key fighter planes, the Spitfire and the Hurricane. The Hurricane made up over half of Fighter Command's front-line strength, and its revolutionary design transformed the RAF's capabilities.

Leo McKinstry tells the story of the remarkable plane from its designers to the first-hand testimonies of those brave pilots who flew it; he takes in the full military and political background but always keeps the human stories to the fore - to restore the Hawker Hurricane to its rightful place in history.

(P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

About Leo McKinstry

Leo McKinstry has been a successful, high-profile writer for almost three decades, winning praise for his fluent style, his range of subjects and his diligent research. He is the author of twelve non-fiction books, including a trilogy on the RAF during the Second World War, several football and cricket biographies, two of which won the WHSmith Sports Book of the Year awards, and a study of the 19th century Liberal Prime Minister Lord Rosebery, which was named as the Channel Four Political Book of the Year in 2006. He is also a national newspaper journalist. Since 2005 he has been a twice-weekly columnist on the Daily Express, while he has been a feature writer on the Daily Mail for 27 years. His articles have also appeared in the Daily Telegraph, Independent, The Spectator, The Oldie, New Statesman and The Cricketer.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ian

Impressively researched book by an expert war aviation historian whose avowed aim is to give the Hurricane its due, as the aircraft which won the Battle of Britain. The popular view at the time, and since, is that the Spitfire, designed by RJ Mitchell and first flown in 1936, was the aircraft piloted......more

Goodreads review by Richard

This is a very good book on the development and career of the Hawker Hurricane. It's easy to read - striking a good balance between detail and good story-telling. In other words, it doesn't get bogged down in describing minute details. This book is particularly good in describing the people who were......more

Goodreads review by Jon

I can't imagine a more honest, comprehensive dive into the development and exercise of the Hurricane. This is the third of McKinstry's airframe histories I have read and the most endearing of the lot. I have a soft spot for machines who succeed while the state-of-the-art passes them by. From pre-war......more

Goodreads review by Danny

Finished while on a plane, fitting. It lived up to all my expectations from reading Mckinstry's Spitfire book and I have the Lancaster one yet to read. I can't put into words how much I really enjoy the way these books are wrote and the detail out into them about the planes. I'm really hoping I'll find......more