Now anyone who’s paid attention to me for longer than five minutes will probably know that I don’t generally “do” non-fiction, most especially biographies. I’m not saying they’re bad or dull, just that generally I prefer to read novels overall so if I’m going to read non-fiction, it’s going to be something on folklore most likely – or other subjects that are going to be of research use. However, the odd exception crops up to prove the rule* and after meeting the man himself on Monday night (Orion Author’s party, very swish champagne do at the Royal Opera House where us geeks huddled in the corner to avoid catching a stray air-kiss) – Wings on My Sleeve certainly qualifies as one I’m keen to read.
Captain Eric Brown has flown more types of planes than anyone else in the world, flew for over fifty years and, in the words of Hugh Laurie in his “Lieutenant George” guise, the man’s a bally hero. Without doubt he’ll not have sold as many books as he deserves and I think everyone should snap up a copy!
* (the rule, in case you don’t know, is that I think people really need to have done something special to write a book about their life. Being, for example, a lacking-in-talent comic, acting retarded and having had a drugs problem doesn’t mean you should be inflicted on the rest of the world)