Merci à Patricia Seixas for checking the written French. Any remaining errors are my responsibility alone. (Particular thanks for gribouillis.)

And finally to Rachel and Jo, midwives at the Royal United Hospital, Bath, on duty in the small hours of 12 September 2005. My angels.

SOURCES

The following works represent the tip of the tip of the iceberg—a highly selective list of the most pertinent, vivid, and enjoyable items I came across as I researched Think of Me.

James’s war—the North African Campaign

Viewed as controversial by some, The Desert Generals by Corelli Barnett (W. Kimber, 1960) nonetheless gives a strong sense of the terrible to-and-fro of the fighting across North Africa. A History of the Mediterranean Air War by Christopher Shores and Giovanni Massimello (Grub Street, 2016, Vol. 2) is the a painstakingly accurate account of the day-by-day progress of the air campaign. For James’s squadrons I referred to the National Archives, where 274 Squadron’s Operations Record Books for 1941 and 1942 can be found under AIR-27-1558 to 1559. For 6 Squadron, follow AIR-27-73 to 76. Every detail, from dogfights against Me 109s down to a lost lavatory seat, is preserved here by the squadrons’ adjutants who kept typing, often on fading typewriter ribbons, through battles, dust storms, and airfield bombings, for all the years of the campaign. I also admired 6 Squadron by Peter Moulding (Bashall Eaves, 1972), himself a wartime 6 Squadron pilot.

Hurricanes

Hawker Hurricane: Owners Workshop Manual by Paul Blackah, Malcolm V. Lowe, and Louise Blackah (Haynes, 2010). Indispensable, and kindly loaned to me by my nephew Billy Parker. For the big canon of the Hurricane IID (the aircraft of 6 Squadron), I am grateful to the 6 Squadron website webmaster for A Squadron in Service by Jim Fox, a technical account of the armory of 6 Squadron in 1942–1943. For flying a Hurricane against the Messerschmitt 109, see an interview with Stewart “Bomb” Finney, 1 Squadron SAAF, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWyY78s8L3w.

The diary of pilot C. D. C. Dunsford Wood paints a vivid picture of his anti-tank training with 6 Squadron at https://storyofwar.com/2012/11/30/november-30th-1942-cairo/. Pilot Roy Veal crashed during this training: his story is in the BBC WW2 People’s War archive, https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/61/a3293561.shtml.

Deaths during anti-tank training are recorded in the National Archives, Air-27-75, details above.

Finally, an extract from a letter to my grandmother from my grandfather Henry Maughan “Bill” Liardet. Bill had command of the 6th Royal Tank Regiment during the retreat in June 1942 before the First Battle of El-Alamein. “I got taken on by one of our own Tank Busters, a Hurricane, who did two attacks . . . but luckily missed each time.” A lesson on tank recognition had been given to 6 Squadron on 1 May 1942 (AIR 27-75), so it is likely that dusk, and a large dust cloud, caused the eager Hurricane pilot to mistake his target on that day in June—and, happily, twice fail to hit it!

Alexandria