The Last Enemy - Tapa dura

* The moving story of a WWII fighter-pilot's epic recovery after being shot down *A harrowing reflection on the ordeals of combat *Commemorative edition of a recognised classic Described by critics as 'not a book written by a pilot about the war, but a book written by a writer about a pilot', The Last Enemy tells the story of a young writer's experiences as a Spitfire pilot in training and during the Battle of Britain, and of the life he led after being shot down. From his carefree days at Trinity College, Oxford, through the youthful excitement of his training, to the horror of being shot down and his slow and painful recovery, Richard Hillary has created a masterpiece of reflection and a testament to youth cruelly forsaken. Hillary's ordeal left him temporarily blinded, his face and hands savagely burned and terribly disfigured, and he endured repeated operations and skin grafts. While undergoing this harrowing experience he questioned whether he might fly again, and if not what he could do to honour those that had died. His conclusion was to write, and this remarkable book is the fruits of his resolution. This commemorative edition of The Last Enemy, originally published in 2003 sixty years after his death, contains a Foreword by 'D.M.W.', to whom the book was originally dedicated.

Richard Hillary was born in Australia on April 20, 1919. While still at school, at Shrewsbury, he had confessed his ambition to become a writer. As an undergraduate at Oxford he joined the University Air Squadron and, on the outbreak of war, the RAF Volunteer Reserve. After training as a fighter pilot he flew a Spitfire in the Battle of Britain, and was shot down in September, 1940. Temporarily blinded, his face and hands savagely burned and badly disfigured, he endured repeated operations involving plastic surgery and skin grafting. It was while convalescing from these operations that he began to write The Last Enemy as a testament to the young fliers of his generation and as an examination of his own character and attitude to the war. It was published in 1942 and was unhesitatingly recognized as a classic. Richard Hillary never completely regained the full use of his hands, but nevertheless was determined to return to flying. Although not really fit for combat, he wangled his way back onto active service and began operational training for night flying. And it was in January, 1943, while on a night training flight that his Blenheim crashed, killing him and his navigator-radio operator. He was just three months short of his twenty-third birthday.