I served in the RCAF durin ww2. I later flew fighters in th USAF, served as captain on USAirways for 28 years.I have written 5 books on aviation.Jeoffrey Wellum's book is a master piece.His breath -taking descriptions of aeral battles puts you right in the cockpit of his BEAUTIFUL Spitfire.
" The narrow legs of it 'undercarrage give it a delicate apperance.It has the air of a thoroughbread---It's ellipitical wings and sleder body give it an air above all other fighters,the sound of it'sRR Merline engine produces a sound ,like nothing else in the air.I firmly believe that the Spitfire was the most beautiful fighter of ww2, and I as jeoffery said ,I would also give my arm to fly it.
I don't know which was his most dangerous flying conditions were,weather flack, or bullets. He did a yomans job in all these instances.
I have read dozens of books by RAF fighter pilots, This book is at the top of my list.Great job " BOY"

Excellent first person account of the Battle of Britain but not the best I've read. If you're looking for something with a little more of the overall picture, try Fly For Your Life by Robert Stanford Tuck. Tuck's book is definitely the best memoir on the Battle of Britain I've come across and one of the best WW II books I've ever read.

This is one of those books I pick up again and again just to read a random chapter. It is that well written. It tells a story of a generation of people and there unbelievable courage & humility. I know because my own father was one of them. The deeply humourous and self depreciating strong and silent type. I doubt we shall see there like again.

Bookwriters use their fantasy and imagination to tell a tale.
Geoffrey Wellum has written from his younger years, from his own experience,what kind of world he faced.A story so incredible that our mind almost refuse to believe it's true. There's one way of capturing a reader, and that is HONESTY. Mr.Wellum is dead honest.I'm reading the book for the tenths time, stil laughing at some situations and very, very sad at others.A book very hard to put down.I guess most of the persons who want to read this book is aviations "freaks", but this book is a good read whoever you are.I've been so fortunate to have met, one of my heroes,mr Geoffrey Wellum, and talked to him.A fantastic person that I hope to meet again.

The best first hand book on flying - particularly the Spitfire, I have ever read. And I've read a lot!

Mr. Wellum's description of scrambling to intercept an enemy plane in weather bad enough that, as we say here, even the birds are walking, is without a doubt the most gripping I have ever read. I should say experienced. All of his vivid flight narratives threaten the reader with sensory overload.

I picked up this book on my departure from Gatwick about a year ago and only just got around to reading it. As I was reading I wondered why it took me so long as I found it hard to put down. The author's experiences during the Battle of Britain are gripping and put the reader right in the cockpit.
His first hand accounts of battle in a Spitfire are first class.
In addition to this book I also recommend the novel "Piece of Cake" by Derek Robinson for anyone interested in this period.

I picked up this book on my departure from Gatwick about a year ago and only just got around to reading it. As I was reading I wondered why it took me so long as I found it hard to put down. The author's experiences during the Battle of Britain are gripping and put the reader right in the cockpit.
His first hand accounts of battle in a Spitfire are first class.
In addition to this book I also recommend the novel "Piece of Cake" by Derek Robinson for anyone interested in this period.

This book is an exceptionally well written account of the author's progression through RAF flight training and on to the Battle of Britain. If you are a pilot or are interested in aviation, you wont be able to put it down. Additionally, you may just learn some history if you're not careful. This is a book you will likely read more than once.

I enjoyed First Light immensely. Geoffery Wellum gives a personal account of his training and combact experiences in British Spitfire. Wellum must have used a diary to be able to retain the information in such detail. As a reader, it felt like I was right there along with him as he trained, transferred and fought in dogfights against German Fighters, usually the ME 109 Merrschmidt. I recommend First Light, a very readable account of his WW2 experience as a Spitfire pilot.

I very much enjoyed Wellum's account of his involvement in one of the most critical times of our world's near history. His personal and conversational writing style brings a fresh and candid account of his heroic time as one of Britain's most valuable fighter pilots. I also found it unique for the author to bring a personable understanding to himself and others during a time more trying than most of us could ever imagine.

I do recommend this book. A great read!!

I fully agree what Mark Hopper had to say in his review. For me the book was definitely 'life-changing'. I know from history how important and vital the Battle of Britain was, but seeing the battle portrayed in films and reading it in history books just didn't have the impact as Geoffrey Wellum's account. He's certainly the person who sits on my 'hero pedestal' now. Please write some more Geoffrey and detail for us how the rest of the war was for you. How did the war affect your life in subsequent years? Did you marry Grace? You have done all your old friends and comrades a great service by writing this book. Well done and thank you.

As other reviewers have noted, there have been enough books written about the Battle of Britain to fill several warehouses. Some good, some not so good. This is one of the most personal and satisfying accounts that you will ever read. Geoffrey "Boy" Wellum was in the thick of it, and brings the reader along for the ride. In the beginning you feel the excitement of flight training (and the ever-present danger). By the end you experience the mental and physical exhaustion that left this veteran pilot certain he would never survive the endless combat missions over his home country and eventually over occupied France. And when he was finally released from operational flying... he "rested" by teaching others to fly and as a test pilot! My only disappointment in this book is that it ended. It's hard to believe that in the past 6-7 months we've been given two great reads on the Battle: "Fighter Boys" and "First Light."

An interesting book. Not the best written that I've seen, but its quirky first person narrative does capture the feel for the place and period very well. There were a few historical and technical errors in the book, but these are to be expected in memoirs of this type. I was able to ignore them and move on easily enough. The writer's affection for the aircraft, a Spitfire Mark V, showed through in his lovely prose. I do wish he had gone into a bit more detail about the Battle of Britain in general, and given a more complete outline of his own service. I felt like I was being racheted forward through the war, one episode every six weeks. In spite of my complaints, a good story from one of the many people who still deserve our gratitude and respect. I'd say buy it.

An amazing read, Have never felt the excitement, pity and fear from one book before. This book makes you feel as though you are inside the most elegant fighter aircraft in the world, whilst sitting in the comfort of your arm chair.

You'd think that after 50 years, all the worthwhile first-person there-I-was accounts of flying Spitfires in the Battle of Britain would have been published. You'd be wrong.

This is an exceptionally well written book that gently yet almost instantly transports you to England, 1939. You'll go through RAF flight training, and then be behind a V12 Merlin over Kent in the middle of the Battle of Britain. There are hundreds of such true tales - and I've read most of them - but this is clearly one of the best.

'Boy' Wellum not only takes us inside the cockpit, but inside the emotions of a young man at war, and inside an amazing time and place in world history. If you are a pilot looking for what it was like to fly the Tiger Moth, Harvard, then at 168 hours climb into a Spitfire, this is the book for you. And if you are interested in a literate immersion into The Few, this is the book for you.

A most moving and vivid account of a young mans journey from boyhood to manhood in a very dangerous time. A young man who upon leaving school has a desire to fly 'fighters', a young man who succeeds in his ambition and has to watch his friends and peers perish both in training and in combat in the skys above England and Europe during the second world war. It is a tribute to those young men and to the author himself that determination against all odds by a handful of young men really did make a difference to the lives and wellbeing of a nation. It is also tells of the duresses that these young men had to bare,and how prolonged stress can even cause the fittest of men to breakdown, and recover.

A magnificent read, and one I could not put down. A real insight into what it took to be "one of the few."

I picked the English edition of this book up in London two weeks ago (it's Number Four on their best-seller list now). As a student of the Battle of Britain, this book was a real treat. I read it in conjunction with "Fighter Boys" (out now) and found the two works complimented each other very well. Wellum was the youngest operational Spitfire pilot in combat during the Battle, and his accounts of training and flying combat missions in the fall of 1940 are first-rate. His description of flying head-on into a formation of Heinkel 111 is the stuff of adventure novels -- only these events really happned and he lived to tell the tale.
The book falters a little toward the end. Although there are clues given that Wellum was sufferering from combat exhaustion, he tends to gloss over that portion of his service. The book ends rather abuptly as well. This is a shame because the bio tells us Wellum went on as a test pilot for Hawker Typhoons and Meteor jets. Given the author's success in detailing flying sequences, I would have loved to read more about his adventures in the cockpits of these rare airplanes.

Amazing person with an amazing story. Brings to light the difficulties faced by so many of generations past. Read it in one sitting - couldn't put it down!

Not being much of a reader of books, I decided one day to pass by my local bookshop and try out the experience. I had no clue what to get and after 30 minutes fruitless searching I found myself trudging towards the shop exit. Determined not to feel like I hadn't made an effort, I made a final and slightly desperate search through the display table at the front of the shop. The last book I looked at for some reason felt right, I don't know why but it did. I took it to the counter and as I paid for it, I felt an overwhelming certainty that I was going to enjoy it. "First Light" by Geoffrey Wellum, yes, definately a good choice.

I'm rather an optimist by nature but even I didn't expect to be quite so taken by this book. It was a real privelige to read and I dare say that for a now budding reader like myself I shall never quite find anything to rival it.

I experienced all sorts of emotions reading this book, from laughing out loud to trying to keep "a stiff upper lip" I was riveted from the first page by the warmth and honesty of the writing.

I feel very humble indeed knowing what these men did for us. And I feel an overwhelming sense of sadness that the world these men fought so hard to protect, has fast become so selfish and unprincipled.

I only wish I could turn back the clock and live the way it was back then. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it had heart. And if there's one thing that stands out in this book than that is it - Heart. Mr Wellum cared, about his country, about his family, about his friends and about himself.

He says at the end of the book that his only regret was that his life had already reached it's pinnacle by the time he was 22. Well, I'd like to respectfully disagree.

Thank you Mr Wellum for your wonderful story, you have inspired me immensely and left me feeling very proud to be British.