Customer Reviews

SPREADING MY WINGS: One of Britain's Top Women Pilots Tells Her Remarkable Story from Pre-war Flying to Breaking the Sound Barrier

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I really enjoyed this book once I got past Diana's earlier years. Which unfortuately make her sound pompous and arrogant, snobby and pretentious and actually rather bratty and in places nasty.

This is unfortunate because if you can get past this bit and onto where she started flying. It is great. It is almost like it is written by a different person. And the accounts of her life learning to fly and in the ATA are fascinating. Real first hand experiences as an ATA pilot flying all the different aircraft. And what is was like for the women ferry pilots.

I recommend this book if you can get past the first part of it.

My criterion for a good book is one that makes you wish it could never end. Without question, Spreading My Wings falls into that rare category. Diana Barnato-Walker wrote her memoir in a delightful style that keeps you turning pages far into the night. It focuses on her adventures as a young woman during the WWII years while in service as a an aircraft pilot in Britain's Air Transport Auxiliary. She flew every aircraft type imaginable, including 260 different Spitfire fighters. Twenty years later, she set the women's world speed record at nearly twice the speed of sound while at the controls of a British Lightning jet fighter. One account I especially enjoyed went like this. Recently married, Diana's fighter-pilot husband, Derek, obtained permission for them to fly side-by-side in Spitfires to Brussels, Belgium. The city had been captured only a few days before and their landing field was less than 15 miles from the fighting front. The story made the London newspapers, which described the flight as their 'honeymoon.' You just can't get more romantic than that! I'm confident you will enjoy this book as much as I did.

Diana Barnato Walker MBE was one of the first female pioneers to break the sound barrier in airflight. Her autobiography reveals her Jewish ancestry including a trip to the Golders Green Jewish Cemetery where the Barnato family plot are interred. She just passed away and I learned about it. She was quite an amazing pioneer but she doesn't get the same press as Amelia Earhart. Regardless, she writes about her marriages, her son, and her life in England during World War II. She was married to a military man. She writes about Life before and after in London, England. She was awarded the military M.B.E. (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in 1965 for her services to flight. I think the book is a great reflection of her life.