Exclusive interview with Max Arthur and a review of his new book about the Battle of Britain in the words of the pilots
Reviewed by Gabrielle Pantera
Rating: 3 Stars
“The pilot had been severely shot up and had lost four of his squadron but somehow managed to land his Spitfire,” says Last of the Few author Max Arthur. “He then went to have a shower and be ready for take-off again. He was called by the ground crew to come and sit in the cockpit. By weaving string through the entry and exits of the bullets they had shown him how they had followed the enemy bullets that had hit his cockpit. There was nowhere in the cockpit that he could sit where he would not have been hit three times. He was utterly mystified and so were the ground crew. One of them asked, with a smile on his face, whether or not he had found any holes in his body when he was having the shower.”
The 2,500 young men of the Royal Air Force who fought in the Battle of Britain were called The Few by Winston Churchill. Survivors from the campaign are brought together by Max Arthur to talk about the events from July to October of 1940. Arthur gives some history, but it’s mainly the story of the fighter pilots, women from the Auxiliary Air Force, and the ground crews. The details they remember and share will transport you to that dangerous time when Britain was fighting for its life.
While the book has great stories, you’ll wish for more details about the actual battles to weave the narrative together. It would also help to have photos of the different planes that are being talked about as well as descriptions of what each did and was capable of.
Max Arthur’s inspiration for the book was the 70th anniversary of that pivotal battle. “I felt that the pilots’ stories had not been told, “ says Arthur. I interviewed a number of Battle of Britain pilots and listened to interviews recorded contemporaneously. None of my books have a narrative and all consist of solely the words of those who fought in the battle.”
For his research, Arthur did not use any documents as all of his books are oral histories. He gathered fifteen Battle of Britain pilots together at the RAF Club in London for a reunion. He says he didn’t see them as old men, but as the brave, devil-may-care young men that they were.
Arthur says there’s considerable film and television interest due to the battle’s 75th anniversary in 2015. There’s an audiobook of Last of the Few, narrated by British actors including Tim Pigott-Smith, who has starred in many films including Quantum of Solace and Gangs of New York. Arthur won the Audiobook of the Year Award for his book Forgotten Voices of the Great War at the 2004 British Book Awards.
“After the great success of my documentary on the Spanish Civil War, The Brits that Went to Fight in Spain, and Dambusters, I am now working on several documentaries on the Second World War,” says Arthur. “Also, another book on the Parachute Regiment for the 70th anniversary in 2012.”
Arthur lives in North London. He was born in Shoreham in Sussex.
Last of the Few: The Battle of Britain in the Words of the Pilots Who Won It, by Max Arthur. Hardcover, 304 pages, Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing (August 1, 2011). Language: English, ISBN: 9781616083083.
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