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Product Description
Review
`elegantly affecting memoir'
--The Times
'Immerse yourself in this extraordinary account of Richard Hillary's experiences... A lost hero whose story has inspired many...'
--Daily Express
`an angle on the war - the pilot's view, before it hardened into mythology, something you won't get anywhere else.'
--Scotsman
--The Times
'Immerse yourself in this extraordinary account of Richard Hillary's experiences... A lost hero whose story has inspired many...'
--Daily Express
`an angle on the war - the pilot's view, before it hardened into mythology, something you won't get anywhere else.'
--Scotsman
Book Description
Richard Hillary is one of the three `fatal Englishmen' in Sebastian Faulks's bestseller of the same name. THE LAST ENEMY is the book he wrote about his experiences in the Second World War; now regarded as a classic, this edition, which includes an introduction by Sebastian Faulks, is published in Vintage for the first time
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
37 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Richard Hilary led a charmed life, born of well to do parents,handsome, an education at Oxbridge and a bright career ahead of him. Then WWII hits, Richard becomes a pilot with his schooltime chums, is shot down and left bobbing in the North Sea for hours. He suffers from horrific scarring and gnarled and contorted hands. He then undergoes painful plastic surgery which is in it's infancy. Richard documents how all of his friends are killed in the war, the sympathy he has to face and his fight to get back up in the skies. This is the best true story about friendship and compassion you'll ever read. A classic from WWII.
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a beautifully written account of one pilot's participation in a crucial WW2 battle. The author spent only a relatively brief period in action; but his description of his privileged period at Oxford, and of fighter training at the beginning of World War 2, are worth reading in their own right.
However, the real subject of this book is the recovery (sadly incomplete) he made from the horrific burns suffered after being shot down on the first anniversary of the outbreak of War. Burns treatment was crude before the outbreak of WW2, and shot-down pilots were the guinea pigs who enabled huge advances in this field to be made. (Hillary's plastic surgeon was the great Sir Archibald McIndoe.) Hillary's courage in fighting his way to this recovery, and the candour with which he describes it, make this book the best memoir I have read of the War.
However, the real subject of this book is the recovery (sadly incomplete) he made from the horrific burns suffered after being shot down on the first anniversary of the outbreak of War. Burns treatment was crude before the outbreak of WW2, and shot-down pilots were the guinea pigs who enabled huge advances in this field to be made. (Hillary's plastic surgeon was the great Sir Archibald McIndoe.) Hillary's courage in fighting his way to this recovery, and the candour with which he describes it, make this book the best memoir I have read of the War.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a beautifully written account of one pilot's participation in a crucial WW2 battle. The author spent only a relatively brief period in action; but his description of his privileged period at Oxford, and of fighter training at the beginning of World War 2, are worth reading in their own right.
However, the real subject of this book is the recovery (sadly incomplete) he made from the horrific burns suffered after being shot down on the first anniversary of the outbreak of War. Burns treatment was crude before the outbreak of WW2, and shot-down pilots were the guinea pigs who enabled huge advances in this field to be made. (Hillary's plastic surgeon was the great Sir Archibald McIndoe.) Hillary's courage in fighting his way to this recovery, and the candour with which he describes it, make this book the best memoir I have read of the War.
However, the real subject of this book is the recovery (sadly incomplete) he made from the horrific burns suffered after being shot down on the first anniversary of the outbreak of War. Burns treatment was crude before the outbreak of WW2, and shot-down pilots were the guinea pigs who enabled huge advances in this field to be made. (Hillary's plastic surgeon was the great Sir Archibald McIndoe.) Hillary's courage in fighting his way to this recovery, and the candour with which he describes it, make this book the best memoir I have read of the War.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Last Enemy
Without doubt the best book of it's kind you'll every read. Very different from any other because it was written by a young fighter pilot who, had he survived the war, would have... Read more
Published 2 months ago by kenneth
Memoirs written by a cad!
"You should be glad this has to happen to you. Too many people told you how attractive you were and you believed them. You were well on the way to becoming something of a cad". Read more
Published 11 months ago by Luthien Arnatuile
Paperback
This book arrived as stated but it was a gift so I am unable to give an opinion on it's content.
Published 13 months ago by J. Wright
The Definitive Account
The Last Enemy is the definitive account of why those young men went to war to fly and so often die. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Peter A. Rhodes OBE
THE LAST ENEMY BY RICHARD HILLARY
THIS BOOK WAS SENT TO ME VERY QUICKLY AND EFFICIENTLY AND I WOULD HAVE NO HESITATION IN RECCOMMENDING AMAZON TO ANY OF MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS.
Published 15 months ago by Mrs. D. E. Patton
superb read
this is a lovely book; easy to read and full of insight; its a treasure
Published 21 months ago by James E. Smith
Superb personal account of the Battle of Britain
I've given this 5 stars but for a different reason to that what I expected when I ordered this book. Read more
Published 22 months ago by A. J. Sudworth
The glories and costs of flying with 'The Few'
The gifted and brave Richard Hillary owes his fame mainly to this remarkable memoir of aerial combat in World War Two and its horrifying consequences. Read more
Published on 13 April 2010 by Brian Flange
A strangely willing guinea pig
The last enemy is not death, but fear. Richard Hillary was fearless to the point of arrogance, and he was among the finest prose writers of his generation, many of whose lives... Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2003 by Timothy De Ferrars
A TIMELY BOOK
Richard Hillary's work is absolutely fantastic. If offers an excellent lesson in coming to grips with the struggle against evil; an excellent antidote to today's pacifist and... Read more
Published on 9 Feb 2003 by Arnold A. Putnam
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