First Light cover art

First Light

Original Edition

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First Light

By: Geoffrey Wellum
Narrated by: Andrew Brooke
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About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of First Light by Geoffrey Wellum, read by Andrew Brooke.

Two months before the outbreak of the Second World War, eighteen-year-old Geoffrey Wellum becomes a fighter pilot with the RAF...

Desperate to get in the air, he makes it through basic training to become the youngest Spitfire pilot in the prestigious 92 Squadron. Thrust into combat almost immediately, Wellum finds himself flying several sorties a day, caught up in terrifying dogfights with German Me 109s.

Over the coming months he and his fellow pilots play a crucial role in the Battle of Britain. But of the friends that take to the air alongside Wellum many never return.

©2018 Geoffrey Wellum (P)2018 Penguin Audio Military Veteran War Heartfelt Inspiring Thought-Provoking Aviation Air Force

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Critic reviews

Vivid, wholly convincing, compelling. One of the best memoirs for years about the experience of flying in war (Max Hastings)
It took him 35 years to turn his notebooks into a narrative, and the result is a highly personal account of what it is like to face mortal combat, day and night, and what it does to a man who is barely more than a boy (Ben Macintyre)
All stars
Most relevant
An excellent tale from the heady days of the Battle of Britain. Well worth hearing.

Cracking tale and well worth hearing.

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So well related by Geoffrey Wellum, you feel like you are with him all the way from basic training to test pilot. An immersing story by one of the “few” to who we owe such a great debt. I know you have gone to join your friends and comrades now. THANK YOU ALL

Inspirational

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a great account of how flying in a squadron of spitfires ticks all the right boxes .... super read

fly high

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Brings WWII to life. Bless that generation for their sacrifice. That old school British way of being as gone.

Probably the best audiobook I've ever listened to.

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Epic story of a very traditional English public school boy, who processes those peculiar traits of courage and understatement in the face of terror, horror and crippling loss of young colleagues, friends, being pushed beyond the physical and mental breaking point before the age of 22....Mr Wellum sadly died this year, what a man what a life

Epic

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