Winkle: The Extraordinary Life of Britain’s Greatest Pilot

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Before becoming one of Britain’s elite test pilots, Eric had a very full WWII combat career which included being shot up and making a forced landing with multiple injuries and also survived the sinking of his ship, HMS Audacity. Much has been written, and much video interview time expended, and widely available, on the remarkable life of Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown, R.N., perhaps the world most experienced test pilot. Paul Beaver’s new biography adds much to the man’s extraordinary history.

So, who was the real Eric “Winkle” Brown? Here, Beaver shines a light on feats of heroism and derring-do, as well as a markedly different origin story to the one publicly known until now.

He didn’t like the Nazis, but he thought Germany was a lovely place. Eric liked German technologies and the German language. He served there after the war both as head of the British Naval Air Mission and as a Naval attache in Bonn.” About the Author: Paul Beaver knew Eric Brown for nearly 40 years. In fact, Eric initially inspired Paul's writing career, offering him expert advice on aircraft carriers and naval aviation for Ark Royal, his first book. The collaboration later included Eric's foreword for Paul's best-selling Spitfire People. As a well as being author, Paul has been a war reporter, journalist with Jane's, a Parliamentary advisor and served for twenty-seven years in the Territorial Army rising to the rank of Colonel in the Army Air Corps (V). I knew Eric Brown for nearly 40 years – he was Superman, absolutely brilliant,” says Beaver. “I knew him at the time that he was just becoming a national treasure. He had written a lot about aeroplanes, but there was nothing really about his character.” Eric said the only thing that got him was when it came to being rescued. As he climbed up the side of the warship, he banged his legs because of the swell and took the skin off.”

The author had exclusive access to Capt Brown's logbook, family photos and personal effects. (via Paul Beaver) Brown’s beginnings are charted here, in detail, for the first time. His being a foster child was previously private, but foster parents, previously considered his natural parents, brought stability and love to the growing lad. His father’s ‘colourful’ past, cited by Beaver, provides amusing counterpoint.

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Sir Winston Churchill first became acquainted with Brown in the early 1940s. “One of the classics was that Churchill came up to Scotland to look at these new Naval fighters, the Martlets, and while flying there he was escorted by three of the squadron aircraft, with Winkle leading,” says Beaver. The big revelation is that Brown's origins were far more humble than he ever admitted. And in the class-conscious Royal Navy, that was not a career-enhancing situation. Especially when you are a Naval Aviator, the sort of person who had limited career prospects to begin with in the RN. (I will state categorically that had Brown flown for the USN, he would have made Rear Admiral. The only question is whether he would have retired as Commander, Naval Air Test Center - or as Commander, Naval Air Systems Command.)

From 1st July 2021, VAT will be applicable to those EU countries where VAT is applied to books - this additional charge will be collected by Fed Ex (or the Royal Mail) at the time of delivery. Shipments to the USA & Canada: It would also have been interesting to read more of Brown's post-Naval career. I'm surprised that he did not wind up employed by one of the major American companies...or as a contract instructor at the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. With a life as remarkable as his flying, Brown faced imprisonment in Germany at the outbreak of WWII, and after the Allied victory his fluent German saw him interviewing senior Nazi officials and participating in the liberation of Belsen - an experience that haunted him for the rest of his life. It was partly for his service on board Audacity that Brown was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. 6. He tested experimental Nazi planes The carriage filled with young children arriving in Scotland remains a poignant image. “Everyone wanted girls and he was, I think, the only boy on the train. It is very sad when you reflect on it now, but if it hadn’t have happened, I don’t think we would have had the same Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown.”As befits a man who is both a Conservative MP and biographer of the political philosophers Adam Smith and Edmund Burke, Norman understands the interplay of power and influence innately. His debut novel channels the style and approach of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, depicting the bitter struggle for preferment and position between the scholar Francis Bacon and the lawyer Edward Coke in the Elizabethan court. Similarities to the murkiness of contemporary politics are surely coincidental. Act of Oblivion That particular incident took place in the skies above the Bay of Biscay in October 1941. Brown, then only 21, was in his Martlet fighter when he found himself face-to-face with a German Condor bomber, “a flying porcupine, with dangerous weapons facing in every direction”. Eric 'Winkle' Brown may not be a household name, but he certainly should be, and this thumping great biography by Britain's leading aviation historian deserves to put that right DAILY MAIL 'BOOK OF THE WEEK'

In the 40 years that I knew our greatest pilot, I always called him Eric, by the way, but of course the world knows him as Winkle, the shortest pilot in the Fleet Air Arm. When Eric was taken ill in 2016, I was the first outside the immediate family he called and so I feel the bond between us was strong.

That immediately called into question Eric’s autobiography and our perceived knowledge. It also led to six years of research, writing, re-writing and editing. There were searching questions and my aim of writing about the man not the machines came sharply into focus. Since finishing the book it has become clear to me that he doctored his birth certificate to be eligible to play rugby for Scotland. In the 1930s, you had to be born a Scot.”