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Memories of a Spitfire Pilot

Alice-But Not Through The Looking Glass: Memories of a Spitfire Pilot by Geoffrey Lewis

UK  price: £6.30      UK  price: $10.95 Format: Paperback Size : 6 x 9 Pages: 74 ISBN: 0-595-38126-X Published: Dec-2005

The memoirs of a fighter pilot who flew Spitfires and Hurricanes during World War II, with many earlier recollections of Clowne, a Derbyshire village, during the thirties.

Book Description
Alice, the author’s mother, is mentioned frequently in this account of his book. A disciplinarian to no small degree, she did her best in the trying pre-war times of unemployment. A fair amount of the author’s recollections concerns the ups and downs of life in the small Derbyshire town of Clowne in the thirties. The history and records of shops and ownership in Clowne might be said to be as meticulous as the records in the Doomsday book!

But what makes this volume most valuable is the author’s memories and insights into that ballerina of the skies, the Spitfire, the key player in the Battle of Britain. And who better qualified to sing these praises than a Spitfire pilot? For out of Clowne came Geoffrey Lewis, a living legend now in his eighties, one of our heroes who gives us first-hand information about his ‘Spitty’, apart from the absorbingly interesting account of his aircraft training in Prince Albert, in Canada, prior to engaging battle in Britain.

About the author

Geoff Lewis was born in Clowne, North Derbyshire, on the 9th of May 1923 to James and Alice Lewis. As interest in aircraft led to his joining the Air Training Corps in 1941. His call-up came in late August 1942, and by April 1943 he began flight training in Canada under the commonwealth Air Training Scheme. He was back in England before Christmas 1943 to become a fighter pilot flying Spitfires and Hurricanes in World War II.
 

Extract from a letter (17 January 2006) by Geoffrey Lewis to Charles Muller:

"As a last snippet thinking back - it was a hot late June afternoon in 1945. I was working at around 15,000 feet coursing for Manabier (S. Wales) Royal Army Gunnery School. The Aircraft was Spitfire HF MARK IX PT 904. It was warm and I was happy doing lazy flying. My mind dwelled on the fact that I would like to write a book. Well, not a bad effort - it has taken 59 years!"