Preview of new Pauline Gower biography – on her birthday

Pauline Gower Pioneering Leader of the Spitfire Women

During the last two years of global pandemic many authors settled down to write the book they had always intended to write. A brand new biography of British aviatrix Pauline Gower is the outcome of months of ‘lockdown.’ With the backing of Pauline’s son Michael and Dorothy Spicer’s daughter, the author Alison Hill, has written a new account of the woman who was destined to write her own history across the sky.

Today, on Pauline’s birthday, History Press have launched a preview of the book cover and introduction:

On this Day…

Pauline Mary de Peauly Gower was born on 22 July 1910 at Sandown Court, Tunbridge Wells, the younger daughter of Robert and Dorothy Gower. It was an auspicious year for aviation pioneers: Claude Grahame-White, who trained at Louis Bleriot’s flying school, had made the first night flight; Halley’s Comet made its closest approach to earth; C.S. Rolls made the first round trip flight over the English Channel; and Walter Brookins, flying a Wright biplane over Atlantic City, New Jersey, became the first person to fly to an altitude of one mile.

Pauline Gower’s convent school years helped form her character, fuelling her drive and determination, and establishing her interests and future potential. Sir Robert Gower chose her school with the ‘same degree of determination’ he did most things. His daughter inherited this characteristic, revealed in her ability to push herself and others to achieve results, despite the challenges along the way. She brought her ready smile to most situations, smoothing the path of resistance at just the right moment. Pauline also inherited a strong political awareness and drive from her father but brought her own skills and sensitivity to issues and circumstances as required. Robert Gower wanted both his daughters to have a solid education, unusual for the time, and chose Beechwood Sacred Heart School in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

After leaving school and enduring a London season which ‘bored her to tears’, Pauline knew she wanted to direct her own future:

‘At 19 my thoughts turned to flying and I decided to do it seriously. I was convinced that aviation was a profession with a future and determined to earn my living and make my career a paying proposition.’

Pauline gave violin lessons to ‘unsuspecting’ pupils to pay for flying lessons and met Amy Johnson and Dorothy Spicer at Stag Lane Aero Club in north London – she and Dorothy soon formed a successful partnership, as pilot and ground-breaking engineer, and set up the first all-women taxi business. Six summers and 33,000 passengers later, as part of the Crimson Fleet, Campbell Black’s British Empire Air Display, British Hospitals’ Air Pageant show and their own Air Trips Ltd joy-riding business, Pauline had clocked up more than 2,000 hours. By 1939 and the looming prospect of war, she was the perfect person to lead the inaugural section of the Women’s Section of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA).
This then is her legacy during the Second World War and to women in aviation – she truly believed that every woman should learn to fly. Pauline Gower MBE certainly enabled the ATA women pilots to fly Anything to Anywhere, from Tiger Moths to Wellingtons, Hurricanes to their firm favourite, the Spitfire.

You can preorder on The History Press website at https://bit.ly/3OlUggl or the longer link is https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/pauline-gower-pioneering-leader-of-the-spitfire-women/9780750996822/

Also available from Amazon.

 

Jackie Moggridge TV series of Spitfire Girl announced

It has been a long road to get here, six years in fact, but at last it looks like it is going to happen! 
TV producer Jackie Wetherill has just announced, “We are all

Candy Adkins, daughter of Jackie Moggridge, with TV producer Jackie Wetherill

signed up now – Jackie Moggridge TV series being produced. It will encompass her life in ATA, through to Burma.”
A scriptwriter will start next month on all the accumulated research material then she will commence on the script. More news to follow soon.

You read it here first dear Solent Aviatrix follower and how delighted I am to bring you this wonderful breaking news.

Spitfire Girl – My Life in the Air by Jackie Moggridge

Pauline Gower Good News – Women With Wings free to read

There are still some good people in the world and this is a happy day.

Dorothy Spicer and Pauline Gower with Spartan 3-seater G-ABKK. Copyright Michael Fahie.

Pauline Gower’s biography of her early years in aviation with Dorothy Spicer, ‘Women With Wings,’ has been made available for everyone to read, for free, by Nick Thomas and Michael Fahie.

It is a privilege to host the digitised version on the Solent Aviatrix website. To see the explanation of how this came about and to read the book for yourself go to the Pauline Gower page.

You’ll Never Make It – But Rod Hall-Jones Became Cousteau Pilot

You’ll Never Make It. A New Zealand Pilot’s Story. Image: R. Hall-Jones

If you are old enough to remember Jacques Cousteau then you will know what a huge influence he was in teaching us about the natural world. He filmed wildlife we had never heard of or only ever seen before in an encyclopaedia. We watched his documentaries in wonderment. Cousteau was a pioneer in marine natural history television.

If you are too young to know his name – he was a contemporary of a young, aspiring, BBC TV wildlife presenter called David Attenborough. But the world Cousteau brought to our TV screens was filmed underwater, in exotic parts of the world, many decades before Attenborough’s ‘Blue Planet.’

To have been part of the Cousteau team must have been a huge privilege and a chance in a lifetime. One such lucky man was New Zealand pilot Rod Hall-Jones, whose job it was to fly the ‘Calypso’ crew and help with filming. Yes, the very same ‘Calypso’ immortalised in song in 1975 by the late country music singer, John Denver.

The very fact that Rod earned that chance is testament to his tenacity to get his flying licence, years before his Cousteau adventure came along. His nemesis was Nevil the flying instructor, who did his utmost to prevent an ambitious young man from achieving his dream. “You’ll never make it,” was Nevil’s jibe thrown at Rod. On more than one occasion Nevil interceded to try to prevent Hall-Jones from progressing. Rod was determined to prove his nemesis wrong and outwit the malevolent man.

Overview of Rod’s biography

Many years later, Rod is still flying and part of his current job is personal pilot to NZ endangered species, the Kea parrot. Another unique and special conservation task.

During the Covid-19 pandemic Hall-Jones wrote his autobiography. To bring his extraordinary life story to us, he took the risky step of self-publishing. As any author will vouch, the financial outlay is not to be taken lightly. In addition to the cost, self-publishers run the possibility of being stuck with piles of books clogging up the house, that nobody wants to buy. Rod took the plunge after getting encouragement from friends who believed his book would simply fly off the shelf. He took delivery of the first 300 and sold them all in the first week!

The second batch has now arrived and can be bought directly from Rod in New Zealand. A reprint must surely follow. See details below.

The biography is split into three sections: ‘The Early Years’, ‘The Cousteau Adventure’, and ‘Fiordland New Zealand.’

Not Enough Power! A New Zealand Pilot’s Story. Image: R. Hall-Jones

If that wasn’t enough to whet the appetite of a reader, then a sample of the 70+ chapters should convince that this is unique story: ‘A Partial Engine Failure’, ‘Vintage Aeroplanes’, ‘A Storm, Volcanoes And A Dolphin Experience’, ‘Indonesia And A Kite Encounter’, ‘Fresh Water Dolphins And Krakatoa’, ‘Medicine Men And A Sick Child’, ‘A Blessing From The Pope And I Meet A Dragon’, ‘Vienna To Budapest And An Icebreaker’, ‘Cernavoda Canal To The Black Sea’, ‘Fiordland Flying’, ‘The Golden Years,’ and so on.

Its the belief of Solent Aviatrix that Rod’s book will sell equally well in the UK and other countries around the world. Can we hope that in 2021 a UK publishing House will snap up of his book, to go on sale here. The combination of a true life story of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, plus a ‘behind the scenes’ look at Cousteau Society film making, makes ‘You’ll Never Make It,’ different from the rest.

Looking further ahead, what a great adventure movie it would make!

If UK book publishers are reading this, get in touch with Rod or with Solent Aviatrix. Hall-Jones is a regular contributor to this website. His desire to have his Spartan biplane return to the Isle of Wight, England, and into the ownership of the Wight Aviation Museum, is one remaining ambition. Click on this link to read more about G-ABYN which was manufactured in Cowes in the 1930s.

Spartan II, 3-seater ZK-ARH flown by owner Rod Hall-Jones

Click this link to read more about G-ABYN which was manufactured in Cowes in the 1930s.

Footnote: John Denver signed all the royalties from his song over to the Cousteau Foundation with millions being allotted to marine biological research. Click here to listen to Denver’s tribute to, ‘Calypso, the men who have served you so long and so well.’ Enjoy.

You’ll Never Make IT biography. About the author.

Always a perfectionist, Rod says, “I had the book produced to a high specification and the printers did a magnificent job. Apart from quality paper and image reproduction, I had the spine of the book drawn and sown so it will last.”

Signed copies can be obtained direct from: rodhj3@gmail.com

Unsigned copies are available from the printers who sell books on their website. Click this link to Craigd