Novel Needed Urgently !!!!

[waco]

Mrs W and I embark on our hols in the not too distant future. We will be bobbing up and down on a large ship (Thanks to Mum who we lost this time last year and left us a small sum with instructions to enjoy!) for a couple of weeks so good reading is essential.

Now, I intended on taking the following books but I feel I also need a novel anyone got any good recommendations to join the following :

Behind the Cockpit Door Arthur Whitlock
The Bedford Triangle Martin W Bowman
One Hundred Days Admiral Sandy Woodward
Mosquito Victory Jack Currie

Over to you..............

(ps nothing to do with Economics or Politics please!)

[AutoStick]

Titanic

The sea shall not have them .

Cockleshell Heros .

Above us the waves .

The Marie Celeste.

Das Boot.

I dont like novels --you have use your imagination !!

[mrtotty]

Try The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
A truly sad and extremely moving book which left me thinking how human beings could be treated so badly and without an ounce of compassion.
Do not take anything by Charles Dickens. I'm wading my way through Nicholas Nickleby at the moment out of politeness after having it lent to me and it is complete s**t - overly long, directionless and rambling.
What a grossly overrated author Dickens is.

[Dave Wilson]

If you're into aviation then 'Fate is the Hunter' by Ernest Gann is an aviation classic and must read. It should be mandatory for all aspiring pilots, I learned as much about flying reading that as I've done reading any textbook.

'Mission Completed' by ACM Sir Basil Embry is excellent, but out of print now, you may find it on ebay or suchlike.

If you like history and a laugh then any of the Flashman books are superb.

[bazv]

Another vote for 'Fate is the Hunter'

Also 'Spirit of St Louis' by Charles Lindbergh is extremely interesting and well written.

'A thousand shall fall' By Murray Peden - one of the best written of the WW2 autobiographies !
MP was a Stirling and B17 pilot (RAF)

Also 'The Diving Eagle' by Peter Stahl,A JU88 pilot (later KG200) extremely well written and translated.

Caution...I found these 4 books unputdownable

rgds baz

[silver fox]

I hate to think how long ago it is since I read Fate is The Hunter, still a good read.

Continuing the aviation theme a little more modern selection.

Joint Force Harrier by Commander Ade Orchard RN
Ark Royal by Mike Rossiter
Phoenix Squadron &
Vulcan 607 &
Storm Front by Rowland White
Apache Dawn by Damien Lewis (no it's not cowboys and indians)
Empire of the Clouds by James Hamilton Paterson
Fighter Pilot by Paul Richey
I Sank the Bismark by Lieutenant Commander John Moffat with Mike Rossiter

[waco]

Thanks all for your input !!!

It's novels I'm after.

A thousand shall fall I thought was magnificent.

Fate is the Hunter is of course the classic alongside I would put Bomber by Deighton and Under an English Heaven by Radcliffe.

Think I'll give Titanic a miss, I guess we will be passing close to her.......

[silver fox]

OK

Try any book by Patricia Cornwell, I have about twenty of her books in my case not read a poor one yet, crime and pathology the theme.

Any of the Cross series of books by James Patterson crime and detection.

Authors I would recommend Val McDermid (wire in the blood just one of her books), John Grisham, Michael Crichton and even for something light, aviation based but pure fiction, try Dale Brown or Tom Clancy, bit like John Wayne in jet planes but easy going.

[Moggy C]

Piece of Cake is always worth revisiting

Under an English Heaven for your B17 fix (Just noticed you've already ticked this one)

Tuesday's War for light relief with Lancasters

Moggy

[Edgar Brooks]

"War and Peace." You won't get through that before you get home.

[Martin Bull]

Talk Down by Brian Lecomber. Aviation, non-war, and a good page-turning holiday read.

[Lincoln 7]

I would load up my KINDLE with "Books" small, compact, lightweight, and the beauty is that you only have one "Book" as luggage.
Jim.
Lincoln .7.

[Andy in Beds]

'Winged Victory' by Victor Yeates.
Yeates flew Sopwith Camels with 46 Sqn, on the Western Front and you won't find a better book on flying in The Great War--in fact you'll be hard pushed to find a better book full stop--in my 'onest guv.
It's written in the form of a novel but is clearly autobiographical, many of the characters in the book are based on real people in the squadron at that time. Yeates was dying from what was known as 'Flying Sickness D' when he wrote the book--we know it as Tuberculosis.
It has a slightly bitter tone (which is understandable) but is blessedly
far removed from false heroics of the type the film industry (in particular) seem so enamoured with.
Buy it--read it--marvel at what they did..!

Andy

[Flygirl]

Catch-22 Joseph Heller

[waco]

Thanks again everyone........

Piece of Cake....one of my all time favourites. Enjoyed Robinsons novel on the cold war Vulcans. Though not a huge fan of Tuesdays war.

I think Flygirl has got the answer, I've never read Catch 22 !

[Flygirl]

Good choice .

[mrtotty]

Caligula by Aloys Winterling is a good read, though not a novel.

[Sgt.Austin]

To kill a mockingbird - Harper Lee
Of mice and men - John Steinbeck
Both excellent.

[spitfireman]

'Key to the dungeon' by Andy Saunders

[Tangmere1940]

The sequel is more interesting....

"Wings Under Burma" (With apologies to Kenneth Hemmingway)

[~Alan~]

Fiction doesn't do anything for me.

One of the best books I have read in recent years was, "Between Silk and Cyanide" by Leo Marks.
The story of SOE during and just after WWII. Excellent book.

[Tangmere1940]

Fiction? Fiction......???!!!

Who said either of the last two were fiction?

[spitfireman]

Fiction doesn't do anything for me.

Says true on the cover.

It is illustrated throughout.

Gripping stuff!

Baz

[waco]

....at least its on the right track......

[A225HVY]

I can thoroughly reccommend................

Think Like a Bird: An Army Pilot's Story by Alex Kimbell

And

Chickenhawk by Robert Mason