Product Description

This wasn’t to be the last time that we left pieces of aeroplane all over Germany, but you remember your first time. It’s just like your first kiss.

It is 1944 and as their battered Lancaster Bomber limps home to base in thick fog, an RAF crew are horrified to find a second Bomber just moments in front. It is too close for their own pilot to react, but in one skilful move their forerunner swoops out of the way and the crew’s lives are saved.

Back on the runway the seven, thankful young men eagerly await their saviour’s return and are stunned, when the pilot climbs down from the cockpit, to find themselves face to face with female Air Transport Auxiliary pilot Grace Baker.

Grace quickly befriends the crew, introducing them to their new Bomber, ‘Tuesday’s Child’ and ensconsing herself in their spare bunk. Then when rear gunner ‘Pete the Pole’ absconds, the lads don’t think twice about asking Grace to secretly take his place in 'Tuesday' as they return to Germany . . .

As radio operator Charlie Bassett regales the reader with the drama of combat during his eight weeks aboard ‘Tuesday’s Child’ in 1944, a funny, authentic and deeply humane tale unfolds. Comparable to Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong, Tuesday's War races vividly across the page, emotionally entwining the reader in the lives and friendships of its extraordinary characters and awakening us to the heroics and realities of war.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53104 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 536 pages

From the Author
Two of the pleasures for which I was unprepared when I wrote Tuesday's War ( working title was " Tuesday's Child " - the name of aeroplane around which the story revolves ) were the letters from readers, and the text messages from daughters asking " have you seen the latest review on Amazon? " To the dozens of the former can I say "thankyou": your responses to my first novel have been moving - so far I have managed to maintain the discipline of answering each one. The main purpose of this author comment is to respond to one particular Amazon reviewer - I am pleased that he enjoyed the novel so much; that was its main function - it was also great fun to write. I experienced the novel as it unfolds, the way the reader does - there was no detailed plan to work to. However he identifies 3 flaws in my research. I must hold my hands up to the first - predating the Buckeridge "Jennings" books by about 10 years - mea culpa. My only excuse is that when I read my first, as an 8 year old in 1952, they already seemed anachronistic and pre-war....I should have checked the dates. In regard to his other two queries - BOAC ( the successor to Imperial Airways ) DID continue to fly civilian flights between the UK, allied and neutral countries throughout the war. They flew unarmed camoflaged aircraft which carried BOAC markings- and transported diplomatic staff, spies and service "evaders", as well as occasional cargoes of war materials supplied by neutral european countries. A number of the aircraft were lost. He also asks if the word " arse " was current US useage in 1944. Certainly the phrase " tail arse charlie " was in increasingly common useage to describe both the last aircraft in a formation, or ( less commonly ) a rear gunner, in both US and UK airforces....so I am happy with its inclusion in Charlie Bassett's story. Charlie will fly again in 2006 and 2007....after that, who knows? Life's too short to plan beyond that. I hope that anyone reading this enjoys his story as much as I enjoy relating it. Happy landings all!

About the Author

David was born in 1944 in Yorkshire and is married with two children. He worked for five years at the Royal Veterinary College before joining H M Customs and Excise, where his postings included the Intelligence and Investigation Divisions. Tuesday's War is the first in a proposed trilogy featuring Charlie Bassett.

Customer Reviews

A Rattling Good Read!
This is a wonderful, emotional roller coaster ride of a novel. Relive autumn 1944 with the crew of a Lancaster bomber. The story of Charlie Bassett and the crew of “Tuesday’s Child”, is told with warmth and feeling with a wonderful eye for detail. When the crew are on a bombing mission, you can believe that you are there with them. You feel their fear as they fly into enemy flak and meet enemy fighters, share the tension as they try to do their job and experience the relief that must have been felt as they make it home after another mission. You really do feel that you are there with them, rooting for them, laughing with them and find yourself asking, was it all worth it? There is the added twist of a female rear gunner, smuggled aboard so that the crew can continue their tour.

The lives and loves of the crew is told with compassion, insight and with a great deal of humour. The book has some sharply observed characters living in a world where life expectancy is short and living (and loving) to the full is a way of dealing with it. There is some cracking dialogue that Groucho Marx and Spike Milligan would have been proud to have written. Just read the part in the book where the German aircraft mistakenly lands in England instead of Germany and say that you didn’t laugh. Even Matt Braddock of “Victor”, comic fame elbows his way in alongside some real life characters. If that’s not enough to whet your appetites, there are spies and ghosts too. Everything you ever wanted to know about life on an airfield in Britain in late 1944 is here.

I can warmly recommend this book. It is a tale of people who were heroes and heroines but didn’t know it. Ordinary people who lived extraordinary lives because of war.

Absolutely brilliant
I loved this book, one of those rare reads that has everything, humour, drama, love. Well written, I could almost believe I was there in 1944, the language, the music and the atmosphere. When I got to the epilogue I couldn't believe the book was finished. I'm glad to see that this is actually the first in a trilogy and I cannot wait for the next instalment!

One to read!
I was really impressed by this book and I read it within about two days. I bought it because I usually enjoy books based in this era and I wasn’t disappointed. It has what I would describe as an unusual love story and I don’t mean that in any way as a negative statement. Having read a lot of factual books on bomber crews in World War II I feel the author has really captured the mood of these lads and the double lives they are forced to lead; partying wildly one day and staring death in the face the next. There are some real laugh out loud moments and the characters are colourful and I found myself thinking about them long after I had finished the book.

This book is interesting, thought provoking, funny and sad and is definitely one to read!