Book
The Burning Blue
First published 2004
As Europe moves towards war, a young British fighter pilot attempts to build a career while concealing a family secret capable of destroying his place within the service and his relationships at home. Training, flying and social expectation create an outward life of confidence that becomes harder to maintain as the international crisis deepens.
The outbreak of the Second World War turns private conflict into an immediate question of duty and survival. Combat forces the pilot to confront what he owes to family, comrades and himself. The novel uses aviation and the social world of the late 1930s to examine how secrecy persists even when public danger appears to make personal shame irrelevant.
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