Hornchurch was once a rural village, though it has now been swallowed up by Greater London. This nostalgic, moving and deeply personal set of recollections discusses this change - which may be seen in the archive photographs which complement the text - and reveals how the village of the past became the town of today. From the First World War, including the local hospitals which cared for the wounded and the pilots who flew from Hornchurch Aerodrome to take part in the Battle of Britain, to memories of life in the Hornchurch of days gone by, Hornchurch Memories will delight locals and visitors alike.

This seat-gripping military romance is set in war-blitzed England and beats to it's own drum. Rachel O'Callaghan, the Scottish heiress is vulnerable after her mother's unexplained death, and Barn, the son of a powerful clansman has become forceful - yet marriage preparations are well under way. So it was by chance in London she meets Jesse, a handsome young blacksmith. Brimming with zest the chaptors explode when Hitler invades Poland and the 'Blacksmith' is accepted to fly night fighters. Be held breathless when the raiders appear on the horizon like a swarm of wasps. Be inspired by the gallant British, as they rise up against the mighty force of the conquering Nazis. Take pleasure in the innocence of true love - but can love in war-time survive? London is burning fiercely. The RAF are running out of fighters . . . the ranks of pilots are thinning . . . Be transfixed when Rachel, the Bristol blue-eyed English spy is escorted to dinner with Herr Goring. And Carl, the affable German ace is moved by her beauty. But Rachel is captured by the SS. Her execution is imminent. And what hope had Jesse in life? Orphaned from birth he was placed in a foundry, but Woody Bone, his foster father was a man possessed. Will the frailty of the Spitfire pilot surface? Is the craziness of Woody embedded deep in his being? But he knew he must save Rachel, somehow, someway . . This novel shows the transformation of a boy to a righteous man, but in times of great fear man falters. The work is essentially fiction, yet many of the war-time incidents, did in fact happen. The Sirens of Hornchurch is a masterful debutant novel, and sweeps the reader eagerly through the pages.

Now in paperback for the first time, the first volume of Richard Smith's popular and well received study of the illustrious airfield and its distinguished pilots.

Taking the reader through World War One (as Sutton's Farm), when early RFC pilots were hailed as the knights of the air, through the 1930s to the outbreak of war, household names abound - Leefe Robinson, 'Sailor' Malan, Bob Stanford Tuck, Brian Kingcome, Al Deere, Paddy Finucane, Eric Lock, and many more. But it was as a main Sector Station in both the Dunkirk evacuation and the Battle of Britain, that Hornchurch achieved lasting fame. Its record is second to none and after 7 years of exhaustive research interviewing commanders, pilots, groundcrews and WAAFs, Richard Smith has written the complete history, with unique photographic coverage.