Defiant

- Blurb -

' From the corridors of the Air Ministry to the skies over Dunkirk, Robert Verkaik tells the story of the Battle of Britain' s unlikeliest hero with verve and phenomenal grasp of detail. He brings the Defiant fighter back into focus as an important part of the victorious RAF in the hour of its greatest trial' Mark Urban' Meticulously researched and rich in human and social as well as military interest, Defiant fills a crucial gap in our understanding of that most perilous time' David Kynaston, author of Austerity Britain' Firmly establishes the aircraft' s role in those crucial aerial battles of 1940 and elevates the brave aircrews who fought and died in their forgotten Defiants, to rank alongside their comrades in the better remembered Hurricanes and Spitfires. ' David Fairhead, director of SpitfirePraise for Jihadi John:' An exemplary account . . . The book' s most important contribution is to highlight the difficulties faced by the intelligence services . . . a first-class primer on Muslim extremism in Britain. ' Max Hastings, Sunday Times' A riveting and compelling portrait of Mohammed Emwazi on his journey to the heart of darkness. ' Andrew Hosken, author of Empire of Fear: Inside the Islamic StatePraise for Posh Boys:' The latest in the series of powerful books on the divisions in modern Britain, and will take its place on many bookshelves beside Reni Eddo-Lodge' s Why I' m No Longer Talking to White People About Race and Owen Jones' s Chavs. ' Andrew Marr, Sunday Times' A trenchant j' accuse against the old-boy chumocracy . . . Posh Boys is, for a book about public schools, decidedly comprehensive. ' Guardian' Inspired, committed, careful and kind. ' Danny Dorling, author of Inequality and the 1%In this startling new perspective on the Battle of Britain, Robert Verkaik reveals the surprising truth about the battle' s forgotten fighter, the Boulton Paul Defiant. The crucial role played by the Spitfire and the Hurricane has been exhaustively recorded, but, to date, next to nothing has been written about the third British fighter which took part in the battle. By writing from the unique perspective of the pilots who flew the Defiant and their air-gunners, Verkaik helps to set the record straight. The Air Staff regarded the Defiant as a state-of-the-art bomber destroyer and wanted to equip a third of all Fighter Command squadrons with this new plane. But the head of Fighter Command, Hugh Dowding, had other ideas and went to war with Whitehall over its plan to saddle