A Wartime Schoolboy - Memories of Fradley, by Colin Russell

From the rear side cover: Wartime Fradley was an exciting place to live for schoolboy Colin Russell. The Staffordshire village - once a quiet agricultural backwater - was home to RAF Lichfield, the busiest airfield in the county, and the lad's house, church and infants' school were all under the flightpath. The planes flew so low at take-off and landing that he and his friends were able to wave to the pilots, and residents soon became used to the almost constant roar of aero engines. Massive hangars were constructed all over the site and the runway was so close to the Coventry Canal that planes sometimes belly-flopped across it.

Fradley aerodrome, as it was known locally, was initially used for aircraft maintenance and flying training for Commonwealth aircrews. Sadly, the combination of old planes and inexperienced pilots meant accidents were common. Word of a 'prang' would soon get round the boys in the village, who would set off in search of souvenirs from the wreckage.

When his bricklayer father was called up into the Army, leaving his mother on her own with two children, young Colin became 'the man of the house'. A growing lad and always hungry, he planted vegetables in the back garden and earned extra money by delivering papers and picking potatoes.

Condition of the book is generally excellent. The covers are clean and bright, the spine is intact and all pages are clean, intact, unblemished and tightly bound.