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From: Ian Edwards to Frank Barnard

Hi Frank,

Thoroughly enjoyed your trilogy, well written, well researched. Annoyed me that a ruddy journalist could capture that spirit I remember so well!

I guess you had brilliant fighter pilot consultants but I noticed one glitch.

I flew Sunderlands but never heard them called Grannies; Flying Porcupine yes, Queen of the Skies yes. Also, in your Malta book, you mention the navigator going aft for a pee. Sorry but the heads were in the bows, stainless steel flush toilet and wash-basin I’ll have you know. Hangover from Empire flying boats I guess. As you came in the front door the heads were under the co-joe’s seat, then a stairway to the upper deck, then a hatchway to the wardroom. There was a flap in the top of the nose we used to stick a hand through and wipe the windscreen in flight, I kid you not!

Also I always thought the engines were dead quiet, especially downstairs where we chatted off-intercom until a blast from the hooter got one of us to get on i/c. By contrast Lancasters and Lincolns were the pits: you couldn’t hear yourself scream off-intercom. I complained after my first trip and one of the hairy-ass elders said: ‘ It’s when you DON’T hear those Merlins boy that you pray!’

By the way, are we going to see the return of Kit, Ossie and the gang in your fourth novel?

To: Ian Edwards from Frank Barnard

Fascinating stuff Ian, even the bit where you tell me I got it wrong about the location of the lavatory on the Sunderland! I thought I got it off one of those exploded technical drawings so beloved by schoolboys of my era, but there you go. As to the nickname ‘Granny’ I certainly came across it during my research but can’t quite recall where as much of the original delving is filed. Perhaps another old Sunderland hand can comment? I’m afraid the usual suspects won’t feature in the next book which is shaping into an ambitious family saga set in Kent, Sussex and France and includes pioneer aviation and combat flying during both world wars.

I’m often asked, as well, what happened Bebe Dubretskov, the devilish little Russian countess of Blue Man Falling and Band Of Eagles but who failed to appear in To Play The Fox. Some have suggested she deserves a novel of her own but frankly I’m scared of the woman…

Further down the track, depending on how long that track may turn out to be, the chaps may well invade Pantalleria, Sicily and Italy in that order but there are a number of other ideas queueing up including motor-racing between the wars and a thriller set in a background of 1950s provincial journalism. The trouble is, this unexpected career came somewhat late…