The Flyer

Between 1939 and 1945, the British public was spellbound by the martial endeavours and dashing style of the young men of the RAF, especially those with silvery fabric wings sewn above the breast pocket of their glamorous slate-blue uniform. Martin Francis provides the first scholarly study of the place of 'the flyer' in British culture during the Second World War. Examining the lives of RAF personnel, and their popular representation in literary and cinematic texts, he illuminates broader issues of gender, social class, national and racial identities, emotional life, and the creation of a national myth in twentieth-century Britain. In particular, Francis argues that the flyer's relationship to fear, aggression, loss of his comrades, bodily dismemberment, and psychological breakdown reveals broader ambiguities surrounding the dominant understandings of masculinity in the middle decades of the century.
Despite his star appeal, cultural representations of the flyer encompassed both the gentle, chivalrous warrior and the uncompromising agent of destruction. Paying particular attention to the romantic universe of wartime aircrew, Francis reveals the extraordinary contrasts of their daily lives: dicing with death in the sky one moment, before sitting down to lunch with wives and children in the next. Male and female experiences during the war were not polarized and antithetical, but were complementary and interrelated, a conclusion which has implications for the history of gender in modern Britain that reach well beyond either the specialized military culture of the wartime RAF or the chronological parameters of the Second World War.

Martin Francis was educated at the universities of Manchester and Oxford. He has published widely on a variety of aspects of twentieth-century British history. After holding several positions in the United Kingdom, notably at Royal Holloway, University of London, since 2003 he has been the inaugural Henry R. Winkler Associate Professor of History at the University of Cincinnati.

A rich exposition of the airman's hallowed place in the iconography of wartime Britain, revealing, in the process, the many-layered connections between myths of martial masculiity and the lives of men and women in wartime. Michael Roper, English Historical Review Well-researched, analytical and well-crafted. Royal Air Force Historical Society A compelling exploration. History Today Illuminating. Susan Pedersen, London Review of Books A wonderfully fresh attempt to explore the culture of the Second World War RAF flyer and the story of masculinity in mid 20th century. A brilliant use of a broad range of sources inc. memoirs, novels, plays and movies as well as official records. A great exploration of the many contradictions within the culture of RAF flyers - as both chivalric knights and mass murderers, as glamorous male heroes and as horribly mutilated victims. Judges of the Longman-History Today Book Awards 2010 The Flyer is an extensive and intensive analysis of the men of the Royal Air Force. 20th Century British History Thoughtful, thorough work. James T. Crouse, Times Higher Education A wonderful survey of the time. Jonathan Sale, The Independent Relies heavily on empirical studies to aid taking right decisions. These features make this book so special and worth reading. The Swiss Review of International Economic Relations Fascinating reading. Roger Moorhouse, BBC History Magazine A lively, accessible, and very worthy contribution to this most fascinating subject. Garry Campion, War in History An excellent book and must take a high position among the books dealing with the RAF in the Second World War. Bill Spence, Yorkshire Gazette and Herald Martin Francis's The Flyer superbly reconfigures the tale of the heroes to whom so many owed so much His wide-ranging, playful and often astonishing assemblage of facts, figures and stories give his portrait of the flyers poignancy and vividness. Ellen Ross, History Workshop Journal Well-researched, elegantly written, and cogently argued History Remarkable and highly original a deeply human book Gender and History The Flyer provides a startlingly clear and arresting portrait of the layers of image and private realities of a small group accorded singular public acclaim that ... has little diminished with time H-Albion Reviews The Flyer brilliantly recreates the world of these airmen, the way the nation viewed them, and how they viewed themselves. Matthew Grant, Reviews in History The Flyer is a fascinating example of cultural history at its very best. Francis weaves pertinent examples into a compelling analysis, succeeding in making his book highly readable. It will appeal to the general reader interested in the RAF and its personnel and to the socio-cultural historian with its sophisticated analysis of male subjectivities and popular memory. Juliette Pattinson, Cultural and Social History