Get Free Shipping on orders over $89
Spitfire : The Biography - Jonathan Glancey

Spitfire

The Biography

By: Jonathan Glancey

Paperback | 2 July 2020

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $24.99

$24.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $6.19 with

Ships in 10 to 15 business days

The bestselling biography of the Spitfire updated with a new chapter for the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

It is difficult to overestimate the excitement that accompanied the birth of the Spitfire. An aircraft imbued with balletic grace and extraordinary versatility, it was powered by a piston engine and a propeller, yet came tantalisingly close to breaking the sound barrier. First flown in 1936, the Spitfire soon came to symbolise Britain's defiance of Nazi Germany in the summer of 1940.

Spitfire: The Biography is a celebration of a great British invention, of the men and women who flew it and supported its development, and of the industry that manufactured both the aircraft and the Rolls-Royce engines that powered it. It is also about a boy who wished he could have been a Second World War fighter pilot and who was later able to fly the aircraft that took his father into combat.

About the Author

Jonathan Glancey is well known as the former architecture and design correspondent of the Guardian and Independent newspapers. He is also a steam locomotive enthusiast and pilot. A frequent broadcaster, his books include Concorde, Harrier, Giants of Steam, the bestselling Spitfire: The Biography, Nagaland: A Journey to India's Forgotten Frontier, Tornado: 21st Century Steam, The Story of Architecture, The Train: An Illustrated History and The Journey Matters.
Industry Reviews
Hugely entertaining -- James Holland
An authoritative and comprehensive tribute to a unique aircraft. -- Adrian Swire * Spectator *
A drama that cannot help take wing. The elements still excite the imagination and raise the heart. -- Tom Fort * Sunday Telegraph *
Eclectic and entertaining -- Patrick Bishop * Literary Review *
A wonderful book -- Rowland White

More in History

Dominion : Making of the Western Mind - Tom Holland

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
Jane Austen at Home : A Biography - Lucy Worsley

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
The Romanovs : The Story of Russia and its Empire 1613-1918 - Simon Sebag Montefiore
A Kingdom and a Village : A One-Thousand-Year History of Moscow - Simon Morrison
Shadows of the Workhouse : The Drama of Life in Postwar London - Jennifer Worth
The First Inventors : How people shaped a continent - Billy Griffiths
Alexander : God, King, Man - Edmund Richardson

RRP $39.99

$31.75

21%
OFF
The School That Escaped the Nazis - Deborah Cadbury

RRP $24.99

$12.50

50%
OFF
Suicidal Empathy : Dying to Be Kind - Gad Saad

RRP $60.00

$57.75

Entitled : The Rise and Fall of the House of York - Andrew Lownie

RRP $27.99

$23.75

15%
OFF
Days of Love and Rage : A Story of Revolution - Anand Gopal

RRP $51.95

$40.75

22%
OFF
SAS The Great Train Raid : The Most Daring SAS Mission of WWII - Damien Lewis