David Lindsey

In the early 1960s David Lindsey was an RAF transport pilot, visiting over 55 countries around the world. In 1966 he was given a one-year unaccompanied tour in Aden as an air staff officer. His family had to move out of RAF housing and into the village in expensive, rented accommodation so he had very little spending money in his new post. Fortunately he had taken his trusty portable typewriter with him and he contacted the editor of the local service newspaper to see if there were any jobs going.

The paper didn't have a children's page and it was offered to him. Offer accepted! With his extensive aircrew experience he decided to write stories about a boy and his magic aeroplane, called Swifty. Over the year he wrote some fifty stories and was paid the princely sum of £2 per issue which, at that time, was enough to keep him in beer and pipe tobacco!

Years later, in early 2022 a remarkable thing happened. David's son Christopher was clearing out the loft in their old house when he found a set of grubby folders containing faintly typed sheets of paper. He telephoned David to see if they should go into the skip and David asked to to see them first. They were the original manuscripts of the Swifty stories which had been sitting in the loft for decades!

On close examination, David realised that, with a few changes, they were just as good as when they were written all those years ago. He completely re-typed them and the first set of 20 stories was published in March 2022 under the title "Swifty the magic aeroplane" with a second book already well advanced. He has enjoyed the experience so much that a brand new, third Swifty book will be ready in time for Christmas 2022.