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James Hamilton-Paterson

Biography

James Hamilton-Paterson

James Hamilton-Paterson is the author of EMPIRES OF THE CLOUDS, a classic account of the golden age of British aviation. He won a Whitbread Prize for his first novel, GERONTIUS. He lives in Austria.

James Hamilton-Paterson

Books by James Hamilton-Paterson

by James Hamilton-Paterson - History, Nonfiction

Little more than 10 years after the first powered flight, aircraft were pressed into service in World War I. Nearly forgotten in the war's massive overall death toll, some 50,000 aircrew would die in the combatant nations' fledgling air forces. The romance of aviation had a remarkable grip on the public imagination, but the reality was horribly different. MARKED FOR DEATH debunks popular myth to explore the brutal truths of wartime aviation: of flimsy planes and unprotected pilots; of burning 19-year-olds falling screaming to their deaths; of pilots blinded by the entrails of their observers. James Hamilton-Paterson also reveals how four years of war produced profound changes both in the aircraft themselves and in military attitudes and strategy.