Those of you who have read A Sunlit Weapon, my latest novel, may remember a small point made about the carburetor in the Merlin engine, as used on the Spitfire and Hurricane aircraft. In the early days of the war, that carburetor had a dangerous fault. When the aircraft went into a dive – a common tactic during an air-battle or dogfight if the pilot wanted to avoid being shot down – the carburetor would flood, causing the aircraft to stall. Young pilots were being killed time and time again due to this fault. For those who managed to get...
Welcome to WomenSong
Many of you will remember that some years ago I began a blog dedicated to women’s history, women’s lives and women’s accomplishments. My intention was to focus on the little known heroines of the past and present—with many of those heroines being women who went about their lives without ever thinking of themselves as anything but “ordinary.” After a while family responsibilities began to take more and more of my time, along with my work as a professional writer, so the blog was pushed to a back burner and eventually taken offline. But I...