Customer Reviews

The Lady in the Spitfire

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4 star:		(1)
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If you have never read any of Helena Schrader's books, you have missed some well-scripted military stories containing love and lots of action. "The Lady in the Spitfire" has a terrific storyline, some of the best military flying action, lots of romance, and locale descriptions far above ordinary. The story takes place mostly in England with air attacks over other areas of Europe. The only job the English military would allow women to perform above the ground was with the ATA, the Air Transport Auxiliary. These women, and some men, ferried various planes according to their ability and training to where they were needed throughout England. Emily Priestman was one such a pilot who had a great amount of experience of flying almost any military airplane regardless of size.

Emily was married to Robin Priestman, a pilot with the RAF. Robin and Emily had not been married very long when Emily received word that Robin's airplane had been seen shot down, hitting the ground spinning over in flames. There was no word as to whether Robin was alive, dead, a prisoner of war, or was picked up be a resistance group. "The Lady in the Spitfire" tells the story of Emily as she ferries airplanes to many areas of the English countryside. Some of these planes were not in very good shape but this didn't scare Emily. She loved flying. She lived to hear word of Robin's fate one way or the other but that did not stop her from doing daring flying and landings in some precarious conditions and areas.

The Americans did not enter WWII for several years after England was attacked by Germany. When the first American pilots appeared they were welcomed in some ways but frowned on because of their late arrival to help. With the American's came the B-17 bombers, a dreadnaught that carried many bombs to drop on targets in Europe when they could get through the flak from anti-aircraft guns and German fighter planes determined not to let them hit their targets. Many of these B-17's were either shot down or damaged badly. One of the American pilot's was Lieutenant Jay Baronowski. J B, as he was called, was in command of one of the B-17's and on his first mission his brand new airplane got shot up pretty bad but J B got it back to base safely. Even Emily, without any weapons, got into action with a German fighter close to the English coast.

After some time, Emily and J B met. They didn't immediately connect with each other since J B had a fiancé in the United States and Emily still had no knowledge of Robin's fate. Eventually they did become friends. The Americans were not accepted by the English thinking they were only coming to become glorious heroes and out maneuver the English in their assignments and with their women.

This story flows so well. Helena Schrader writes in a style that gives both sides of what was occurring in England between all the pilots, their crews, their various assignments, their love life, and their off duty and weather caused down time. Do yourself a big favor and purchase this book. You will not be disappointed. You will enjoy the surprise ending! I have always enjoyed military books, fact or fiction. This book blends both in a way that held my interest non-stop. There is so much written to keep the reader interested from page to page, unlike some books that will "bog" down occasionally. Many thanks Helena Schrader.

Good, good, good story-loved it! Learning about the "Spitfire" and the lady pilots was so enlightening and just a great adventure to read. After I read the book I checked out the information on the planes and pilots.

The author wrote a book easy to read and enjoy-which I appreciate-and enough so to spark interest to learn about things in the book.

This book is one more reason for me to declare my love for historical fiction. The facts behind the female flyers that moved the aircraft to operational airfields were fascinating. However, without the story that Helena P Schrader, I would have struggled to wade my way through the dry descriptions.

The story brings the well researched facts to life. I have to say that the ending, well, the ending before the end of the book, is rather predictable. What would often be entitled "Epilogue," wraps up all of the loose ends very nicely and made me feel good.

There were a few surprises littered throughout the text. Without spoiling them, I shall reveal one of them. Remember that this story is based in the days when radar was still being developed in secret, so the pilots were flying blind if they flew into cloud, or if the airfields were fog-bound. The surprise, for me, was that the pilots were instructed to bale out and ditch their plane if they were unable to land safely on an airfield. Of course, some of them bravely disobeyed these orders and managed to land against all the odds.

You can read enough about the story in the description of the book and on the cover for me not to need to tell you more. Suffice to say that it is a love story weaved around some serious flying and combat action. There are some annoying characters in the book, but you wouldn't want to read a book where all of the characters are nice, would you?

Well researched on all levels: US and british WWII airplanes, the role of british female pilots at the time, ideas and prejudices of the period (marriage, infidelity, the place of women in society), US and british idioms, etc.

The background is authentic and the author obviously did her homework.

Some typos but nice and easy to read. Very enjoyable overall especialy if you like WWII aviation.

Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (12/06)

"The Lady in the Spitfire" was written by Helena Schrader who has a PhD in history. She incorporates her research on women pilots during WWII into this great fictional story. Schrader's knowledge of this era allows her to richly describe what is happening at the time. This includes the attitude of men towards women, the differences between the American and British cultures, and the fashion of the time. Even though it is fiction, I learned a lot. In her writings, Schrader gave me a thought of food for thought. I did not know that women were allowed to be pilots at this time, anywhere. These women had to fight really hard for respect.

Emily lost her husband Robin when his plane is shot down over Germany. His death was never confirmed, so she couldn't really be sure if he was really gone or not. She is a RAF pilot with the Air Transport Auxiliary unit. When American Lt. Jay Baronowsky almost crashes into her while they are both trying to land their planes, she meets him and her interest is peaked. He is engaged to a high maintenance snob back in the states. The fiancé has no clue about what Jay has to deal with while at war. She is more interested in trivial matters like selecting china patterns for her wedding. Jay is very intrigued with Emily, as a pilot she understands the dangers that he has to deal with everyday. Emily wants a friendship but no more than that because she still hasn't come to terms with what happened to Robin. In spite of her wishes, the chemistry between the two is impossible to avoid. Jay and Emily and fall in love. They have to deal with a lot of issues and hardships along the way.

"The Lady in the Spitfire" is a great love story. Like real life, things don't always turn out the way that we want them to, but the lessons learned along the way are important. Schrader has a talent for richly blending real history into her story so that you believe that it is all real. I highly recommend this book to WWII history buffs and romance fans.

Book received free of charge