Winkle: The Extraordinary Life of Britain’s Greatest Pilot

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Further research into official records called into question other aspects of Eric’s early life. I started to see from the where the character of Eric was born, developed and blossomed. He was every bit the hard-bitten professional and the martinet in the beginning and then I saw how the national treasure aspect came about too. The next problem was keeping the word count down. That meant re-writing and editing – author’s hate to cut words but my publisher, Rowland White came up with a solution – detailed captions on a hundred photographs, many not seen before. Sir Winston Churchill first became acquainted with Brown in the early 1940s. “One of the classics was that Churchill came up to Scotland to look at these new Naval fighters, the Martlets, and while flying there he was escorted by three of the squadron aircraft, with Winkle leading,” says Beaver. Beaver recounts the story of a man he regarded as a mentor in unshowy but fascinating detail, and restores a British hero to his rightful place OBSERVER Brown flew 487 types of aircraft, more than any other human being, a record that will almost certainly never be broken given modern safety restrictions. Testing German experimental jets captured at the end of the Second World War, there was sometimes no technical manual to guide him. When he died in 2016, aged 97, aviators across the world mourned. He was also touchy, egotistical and funny – all of which is apparent in Paul Beaver’s excellent new biography, Winkle: The Extraordinary Life of Britain’s Greatest Pilot. In 1936, Brown’s father took him to see the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, during which Brown witnessed Hitler shaking hands with Jesse Owens. At the time, Hermann Göring had recently announced the existence of the Luftwaffe, and Brown and his father (a former balloon observer and pilot in the Royal Flying Corps) met and were invited to join social gatherings by its members.

Paul Beaver knew Eric Brown for nearly 40 years. In fact, Eric initially inspired Paul’s writing career, offering him expert advice on aircraft carriers and naval aviation for Ark Royal, his first book. The collaboration later included Eric’s foreword for Paul’s best-selling Spitfire People. As a well as being author, Paul has been a war reporter, journalist with Jane’s, a Parliamentary advisor and served for 27 years in the Territorial Army rising to the rank of Colonel in the Army Air Corps (V). He remembers he had bought a silk nightdress in Tangier for his fiancée, Lynn. So, he stuffs that inside his tunic to save it, which, of course, adds another layer of insulation. Then he gets into the water and starts helping other people. Brown went on to study modern languages at Edinburgh University, with German as his primary subject. “The whole Germany thing is fascinating because despite being sunk and almost shot down and wounded by Germans [during the Second World War], he still liked the Germans.Brown’s beginnings are charted here, in detail, for the first time. His being a foster child was previously private, but foster parents, previously considered his natural parents, brought stability and love to the growing lad. His father’s ‘colourful’ past, cited by Beaver, provides amusing counterpoint. Brown seemed a shoo-in to join the Royal Air Force during the Second World War but there was a hitch – when the 19-year-old aspiring pilot reported to the recruiting office in Edinburgh, he was told sign-ups were at capacity and there was a three-month wait. It was partly for his service on board Audacity that Brown was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. 6. He tested experimental Nazi planes Eric must have looked a bit forlorn, so Glenn asked him, ‘Can you play an instrument?’ Of course, Eric couldn’t, but he said, ‘I can play the drums’, which is actually not true. So, he became the second drummer and just drummed away.” Brown rubbed shoulders with myriad people throughout his life, from “the Royal family to Shirley Bassey to astronauts to German war criminals”. He even performed on stage with the legendary Glenn Miller Orchestra in late 1944.

That particular incident took place in the skies above the Bay of Biscay in October 1941. Brown, then only 21, was in his Martlet fighter when he found himself face-to-face with a German Condor bomber, “a flying porcupine, with dangerous weapons facing in every direction”. I think that as a biography this stands up very well. With unprecedented access to Brown’s paper’s and logbooks he is able to give a far moot warts and all account of Brown’s life than Brown was capable of whilst still showing his subject through the lense of a 40 year friendship. The big revelation is that Brown's origins were far more humble than he ever admitted. And in the class-conscious Royal Navy, that was not a career-enhancing situation. Especially when you are a Naval Aviator, the sort of person who had limited career prospects to begin with in the RN. (I will state categorically that had Brown flown for the USN, he would have made Rear Admiral. The only question is whether he would have retired as Commander, Naval Air Test Center - or as Commander, Naval Air Systems Command.) Captain Eric Brown, RN, is one of the titans of flight testing. Nearly 500 types in his logbook, around 3,000 arrested landings, and a reputation as the greatest carrier suitability test pilot in history. This book is a good biography of him, with some revelations...but also some surprising gaps.The daring life and astonishing adventures of Captain Eric 'Winkle' Brown - Britain's greatest-ever pilot. From 1st July 2021, VAT will be applicable to those EU countries where VAT is applied to books - this additional charge will be collected by Fed Ex (or the Royal Mail) at the time of delivery. Shipments to the USA & Canada:

As befits a man who is both a Conservative MP and biographer of the political philosophers Adam Smith and Edmund Burke, Norman understands the interplay of power and influence innately. His debut novel channels the style and approach of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, depicting the bitter struggle for preferment and position between the scholar Francis Bacon and the lawyer Edward Coke in the Elizabethan court. Similarities to the murkiness of contemporary politics are surely coincidental. Act of Oblivion So, who was the real Eric “Winkle” Brown? Here, Beaver shines a light on feats of heroism and derring-do, as well as a markedly different origin story to the one publicly known until now. Brown’s military experience comes mostly from known material, with enough added detail to provide spice, and not inconsiderable horror, to his early combat flying, and his being aboard Audacious when she was torpedoed. His survival—like many instances in his flying career—was near miraculous. Besides meticulous preparation, he embodied what has been described as essential for successful aviators: almost pathological self-confidence. He didn’t like the Nazis, but he thought Germany was a lovely place. Eric liked German technologies and the German language. He served there after the war both as head of the British Naval Air Mission and as a Naval attache in Bonn.” It was always agreed I would have access to his papers and there were 12 big boxes. That took a long time to go through.An incredible life ... Brown took a secret to the grave that makes his story all the more remarkable The Sun As Paul said to us, he wanted this book to be about the man, rather than the aircraft, and it’s an extraordinary tale of a talented but complicated man who served his country in many ways. That immediately called into question Eric’s autobiography and our perceived knowledge. It also led to six years of research, writing, re-writing and editing. There were searching questions and my aim of writing about the man not the machines came sharply into focus. A thumping great biography of the flying ace who made Top Gun look tame ... enthralling' DAILY MAIL

Compelling, fascinating and frequently jaw-dropping. A brilliant and revelatory biography' JAMES HOLLAND A] thumping great biography by Britain's leading aviation historian' DAILY MAIL, 'BOOK OF THE WEEK' About the Author: Paul Beaver knew Eric Brown for nearly 40 years. In fact, Eric initially inspired Paul's writing career, offering him expert advice on aircraft carriers and naval aviation for Ark Royal, his first book. The collaboration later included Eric's foreword for Paul's best-selling Spitfire People. As a well as being author, Paul has been a war reporter, journalist with Jane's, a Parliamentary advisor and served for twenty-seven years in the Territorial Army rising to the rank of Colonel in the Army Air Corps (V).Brown began his active war service in 1941, flying Martlets off the carrier HMS Audacity until its sinking in December. In 1943, he switched to test-pilot duties, an activity as dangerous as combat. None of this put the slightest dent in Brown’s determination to accept every risk on offer. They included flying the experimental Messerschmitt Me 163, which could climb to 30,000 feet in two-and-a-half minutes, and whose hugely combustible fuel had accounted for several deaths.