Sagittarius Rising - Softcover

Lewis, Cecil

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140043675 ISBN 13: 9780140043679

Publisher: Penguin, 1977

Synopsis

This is a book everyone should read. It is the autobiography of an ace, and no common ace either. The boy had all the noble tastes and qualities, love of beauty, soaring imagination, a brilliant endowment of good looks ... this prince of pilots ... had a charmed life in every sense of the word George Bernard Shaw Sent to France with the Royal Flying Corps at just 17, and later a member of the famous 56 Squadron, Cecil Lewis was an illustrious and passionate fighter pilot of the First World War, described by Bernard Shaw in 1935 as 'a thinker, a master of words, and a bit of a poet'. In this vivid and spirited account the author evocatively sets his love of the skies and flying against his bitter experience of the horrors of war, as we follow his progress from France and the battlefields of the Somme, to his pioneering defence of London against deadly night time raids.

About this title

Review

If you want to read one book which best captures the heroic infancy of flying, then Sagittarius Rising is it. Forget St Exupery, Lindbergh or even Richard Hillary. Cecil Lewis got there before any of them, and in this magical memoir summed up the terrible beauty of flying, and fighting the first air war, waged in the skies above the Western Front. --Nigel Jones, BBC History Magazine

Sagittarius Rising is his stirring, often moving, account of his years with the corps, fighting on the Western Front. The vivid descriptions of dog-fights (including an encounter with the Red Baron) and the exhilaration of flight transcend Boy's Own Paper banality through his poignancy and lyrical depth. --The Times

This is a book everyone should read. It is the autobiography of an ace, and no common ace either. The boy had all the noble tastes and qualities, love of beauty, soaring imagination, a brilliant endowment of good looks . . . this prince of pilots . . . had a charmed life in every sense of the word . . . he is a thinker, a master of words, and a bit of a poet. --George Bernard Shaw

About the Author

Cecil Lewis distinguished himself in action with eight victories throughout WWI and was awarded the MC. After the war he became a flying instructor in China and later achieved fame as one of the founders of the BBC, and as a respected playwright. He died in 1997.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1977
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140043675
• ISBN 13: 9780140043679
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272