“So you lot want to be pilots? Bloody hell, Stalin’s had it now!” were the withering words of the corporal as he eyed his young National Service recruits for the first time. This autobiographical account, written 60 years later, tells of “the most exciting years” of James Stevenson’s life when, aged from 18, he learnt to be a jet fighter pilot with the RAF in Canada.  

The book is based on carefully preserved letters James wrote home in the 1950s – but also includes some youthful exploits not suitable to reveal to his parents. Not to mention strictly forbidden pretend dog-fights in the air.  

James Stevenson is the author of two thrillers, Dartmouth Conspiracy and Fly the Storm. But Stalin’s Had It Now takes you above the clouds to share the joy of flying in what was one of the fastest aeroplanes on earth. Beautifully written with both humour and sadness in the author’s clear, easy, self-deprecating style, it captures a young man’s zest for life and for flying – always tinged with worries about whether he would ever make the grade and “get his wings”


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Before leaving this page why not  Watch this Pathe Newsreel clip first shown in 1954


The author reads Stalin's Had It Now! for Isis Soundings audio books

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