The Spitfire Kids, Alasdair Cross
The Spitfire Kids, Alasdair Cross
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
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The Spitfire Kids
The generation who built, supported and flew Britain's most beloved fighter

Author: Alasdair Cross, BBC Worldwide

Narrator: Alex Wingfield, Beth Eyre, Esther Wane, Gareth Armstrong, Julie Teal, Luke Thompson, Michael Fenner, Nicky Diss, Simon Slater, Thomas Judd

Unabridged: 8 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Headline

Published: 05/13/2021


Synopsis

'An inspirational read celebrating the incredible young people who gave so much for this iconic British aircraft'. John Nichol, bestselling author of Spitfire: A Very British Love Story

Despite the many films and television programmes over the decades since the end of the Second World War that portrays our allied heroes as grown-up men and women, the Battle of Britain was in the main actually fought and won by teenagers. The average age of an RAF fighter pilot was just twenty years old. Many of the men and women who designed and built their planes were even younger.

Based on the hit BBC Radio podcast Spitfire: The People's Story, we use contemporary diaries and memoirs, many of them previously unpublished, to tell the story of the Spitfire through the voices of the teenagers who risked everything to design, build and fly her. This isn't a story of stiff-upper lips, stoical moustaches and aerial heroics; it's a story of love and loss, a story of young people tested to the very limits of their endurance. Young people who won a battle that turned a war.

(P)2021 Headline Publishing Group Limited

About Alasdair Cross

ALASDAIR CROSS is a successful radio and TV producer with the BBC. Brought up in the Orkney Islands, an annual summer treat was Britain's smallest air show, once memorably visited by a powder pink Spitfire. He has worked on BBC's Coast and Countryfile and his radio series include BBC Radio Four's Terror Through Time with Fergal Keane and Neil Oliver's Iron Curtain as well as the BBC World Service podcast Spitfire: The People's Plane.Historical Advisor: David Key runs the Supermariners website which researches and reconstructs the stories of the men and women who designed and built the Spitfire.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Anna on March 06, 2025

incredibly interesting and detailed with first hand comments of people who actually built and flew this beautiful aircraft back in the day. as an av-geek, this made my heart beat faster.......more

Goodreads review by Steve on September 14, 2023

Superb read! A very concise detailing of the history of the Spitfire and those involved in its creation and development. Focussing primarily on the role of the young generation that were thrown into the turmoil of the march towards and engagement in World War Two. Spitfire Kids tells what happened w......more

Goodreads review by Erin-Lucy on November 26, 2023

"Everybody spoke about Spitfires and here I was flying one and I wasn't yet nineteen years old." This was absolutely fascinating, the only reason this didn't get 5 stars was a personal disinterested in the mechanical history.......more

Goodreads review by Geraint on February 21, 2023

Excellent read, different format from the usual histories of the Spitfire & Battle of Britain.......more

Goodreads review by Paul on August 13, 2022

Very interesting read of how we done a great job in ww2... The plane that saved us and the people who made it happen.........more


Quotes

Draws on unpublished diaries and archive recordings to chronicle the extraordinary national effort to construct the fighter aircraft that gave the Allies a critical edge over the Luftwaffe. The Times

A truly epic account of the actual and symbolic role the plane played in defending Britain in the Second World War. Sunday Times

Tells the inspiring story of how ordinary citizens came together to build the famous Battle of Britain aircraft. The Observer

The story of how these fast and lethal little planes helped win the Second World War is stirringly told in this new BBC series. The Mail on Sunday

The story of the Second World War's most famous plane is peppered with women - many of their stories untold in the decades since the conflict. The Telegraph

An inspirational read celebrating the incredible young people who gave so much for this iconic British aircraft. John Nichol, bestselling author of Spitfire: A Very British Love Story

Read Spitfire Kids and you'll start believing this plane has a pulse! Tessa Dunlop, broadcaster and bestselling author of Century Girls

It is a story of heroism that goes beyond the spiffy moustaches and aerial acrobatics we have all seen in old movies, tapping into the verve and tenacity shown by a young workforce. The Herald