John B. Winterburn

THE book about Barnes Wallis, 23 Oct 2011

Barnes Wallis came to the public's attention with the release of The Dam Busters film in 1955 which illustrated the success of bouncing bombs in the destruction of German dams in 1943 and the heroism of the men of 617 Squadron. Little else was generally known about the enormous contribution Wallis made to the development of airships, aircraft and specialist weapons. `Bouncing Bomb Man' has corrected this and it will become the definitive work detailing Wallis' unique contribution to weapon design and aviation.
Born in 1887, Wallis' early education was unremarkable. He was indentured as an engineering apprentice working on marine engines but in 1913 began work on the design of airships… Read more

Memoirs of an Amazon, 21 Oct 2011

Amazon in Arabic is a charming and extraordinary memoir of a remarkable women during a challenging period of her life. The author recollects childhood memories and encounters with friends that have relevance to her later life an conquering cancer.She tells of how the challenges of learning Arabic and returning to an archaeology project in Jordan helped her recover.
The book is a joy to read and once started it is hard to put down....but watch out for the unexpected sentences that hit you like a left hook and leave you dazed and angry on her behalf.

Worth reading for first-hand accounts, 21 Sep 2011

Lawrence of Arabia's Secret Air force is the story of George Hynes, an aircraft mechanic attached to X Flight in Aqaba. The dry and terse accounts in the official War Diaries were carefully written in difficult conditions and it is regrettable that the same care was not applied to the transcriptions used for this book. I noticed several errors. Captain Furness-Williams was not in the Turkish garrison of Ma'an on 4 March 1918; he was at Aqaba. Captain Siddons wrote his report for the week-ending 10 March in 1918, not 1928. The description of the Ma'an landscape is unrecognisable to anyone who has actually been there. And so on.
However, the errors have to be endured for the… Read more