Lord Ashcroft's New Book on Heroic Airmen - Out on September 13

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• Publié par: lordashcroft-com
• Nombre de lectures: 28
• Langue: English

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Lord Ashcroft's New Book on Heroic Airmen -

Out on September 13

PR Newswire

LONDON, July 4, 2012

LONDON

,

July 4, 2012

/PRNewswire/ --

Lord Ashcroft's new book,

Heroes of the Skies

, will be published by Headline

Review on

September 13

2012.

The book tells the remarkable stories behind the world's largest collection of

medals for gallantry in the air that were awarded to more than 80 British,

Commonwealth and other Allied airmen.

Heroes of the Skies

uses new material from pilots' log books, eyewitnesses,

letters, citations, interviews and other sources to tell the stories of air combat,

bombing raids and other bravery displayed by airmen as long ago as the First

World War and up to the on-going conflict in

Afghanistan

. The bulk of the

stories are from the Second World War and they include some of the greatest

fighter aces from the conflict.

The Foreword to the book has been written by Marshal of the Royal Air Force

Sir Michael Beetham GCB, CBE, DFC, AFC, a distinguished and decorated

Second World War bomber pilot and now President of the Bomber Command

Association.

Lord Ashcroft has established himself as a best-selling author with his Heroes

series and

Heroes of the Skies

will be his fourth book on bravery (and his

seventh in all). As well as being a military historian, Lord Ashcroft in an

international businessman and philanthropist. He has built up the world's largest

collection of Victoria Crosses (VCs),

Britain

and the Commonwealth's most

prestigious award for gallantry. The decorations, more than 170 in total, are

now on display at the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum in

London

.

Lord Ashcroft has decided that all author's royalties from

Heroes of the Skies

will be donated to the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund. The fund is the RAF's

leading welfare charity, looking after serving and former members of the RAF

and their partners and dependent children. Lord Ashcroft is particularly keen to

support the charity because it recently became the custodian of the new

Bomber Command Memorial in central

London

.

The book has been written in conjunction with a six-part Channel 5 televisions

series, also called

Heroes of the Skies

, which will be screened in the autumn of

2012. Four airmen featured in the television series (including the legendary

Douglas Bader), whose medals are not in Lord Ashcroft's collection, also

feature in the book.

Lord Ashcroft's previous books in the "Heroes" series are:

Victoria Cross

Heroes, Special Forces Heroes

and

George Cross Heroes

, first published

respectively in 2006, 2008 and 2010.

Lord Ashcroft, along with some of the medal recipients whose stories appear in

Heroes of the Skies

, will be available for interview in the run-up to publication.

Those who feature in the book include Edward Maslen-Jones, a decorated

Second World War reconnaissance pilot, who is now 92 years old.

Heroes of the Skies

by Michael Ashcroft is published by Headline Review and can be

pre-ordered on

http://www.amazon.co.uk

. It will be available in all leading

bookshops from September 13 2012. For more information about Lord Ashcroft

visit:

http://www.lordashcroft.com