Forthcoming book Youngest Ace, Russian

[Francis Howell]

Gentlemen - and Denes particularly,

Publishers can surely be naive ! Some years ago here in London we were at first (and for a very short time !) enthralled with a book from the sadly now-defunct William Kimber, called, I recall, 'Whirlwind Pilot'. It seemed initially to be absolutely kosher. But every pilot named had been killed during the war, and suddenly at the end the author mentioned a whole lot of spurious Typhoon squadrons. Then the photo of him standing in front of 'his' Whirlwind was worked out to be the C.O. of 137 Squadron's aircraft with a cut-out from this guy's personal photo album of himself stuck on the front.

When this was brought to Kimber's notice, not only were they horrified, but the Air Historical Branch of the MoD admitted that they had just been warned in time before one of their staff included a favourable review in one of the official RAF publications ! Kimber at once withdrew the book, and the author got no royalties - I think they would have sued him for the advance back if he hadn't been resident in Australia. He then admitted to not having been a pilot at all, but a ground 'erk' at the very end of the war - he had, he said, written it "as a novel based on his own experiences". But it has now become something of a collectors' item for some reason !!

Francis