First Light

‘Vivid, wholly convincing, compelling. One of the best memoirs for years about the experience of flying in war’ Max Hastings, Sunday Telegraph

Two months before the outbreak of WWII, seventeen-year-old Geoffrey Wellum becomes a fighter pilot with the RAF . . .

Desperate to get in the air, he makes it through basic training to become the youngest Spitfire pilot in the prestigious 92 Squadron. Thrust into combat almost immediately, Wellum finds himself flying several sorties a day, caught up in terrifying dogfights with German Me 109s.

Over the coming months he and his fellow pilots play a crucial role in the Battle of Britain. But of the friends that take to the air alongside Wellum, many never return.

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‘An intimate account . . . rich in detail’ James Holland, Wall Street Journal, ‘Five Best World War II Memoirs’

‘An extraordinarily deeply moving and astonishingly evocative story. Reading it, you feel you are in the Spitfire with him, at 20,000ft, chased by a German Heinkel, with your ammunition gone’ Independent

‘A brilliantly fresh, achingly written memoir. Thrilling and frightening on virtually every page . . . Wellum takes you into battle with him. A book for all ages and generations, a treasure’ Daily Express