Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2011.
Longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2010.
The author’s grandfather flew a Lancaster bomber in the Second World War and was shot down on a mission to Holland. The author looks in to the history of these raids but as a literature teacher is also interested in why the WWII did not seem to produce poetic works such as those of Owen and Sassoon from the first. An interesting alternative look at this period of history.
One night in June 1943 James Swift, along with the Lancaster bomber he piloted, vanished. In Bomber County, his grandson Daniel seeks to discover what happened. At the same time he tries to understand the men who took part in these dangerous raids, as well as their devastating impact on the civilians below. In examining the life of one pilot, Daniel Swift also investigates why it is we have tried to forget what was then a new, shocking form of warfare, and why literature and poetry exploring these terrible losses have not found the recognition they deserve.
