Bomber County

'Daniel Swift's memorial to the grandfather he never knew is a rare and subtle blend of military history, literary insight and narrative skill. A remarkable book.' Al Alvarez

'Strikingly original and beautifully written, BomberCountyis an elegiac contemplation of memory, loss, poetry and moral choice.' AntonyBeevor

In early June 1943, James Eric Swift, a pilot with 83 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, boarded his Lancaster bomber for a...
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'Daniel Swift's memorial to the grandfather he never knew is a rare and subtle blend of military history, literary insight and narrative skill. A remarkable book.' Al Alvarez

'Strikingly original and beautifully written, BomberCountyis an elegiac contemplation of memory, loss, poetry and moral choice.' AntonyBeevor

In early June 1943, James Eric Swift, a pilot with 83 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, boarded his Lancaster bomber for a night raid on Münster and disappeared.

Aerial bombardment was to the Second World War what the trenches were to the First- a shocking and new form of warfare, wretched and unexpected, and carried out at a terrible scale of loss. Just as the trenches produced the most remarkable poetry of the First World War, so too did the bombing campaigns foster a haunting set of poems during the Second.

In researching the life of his grandfather, Daniel Swift became engrossed in the connections between air war and poetry. Ostensibly a narrative of the author's search for his lost grandfather through military and civilian archives and in interviews conducted in the Netherlands, Germany and England, Bomber County is also an examination of the relationship between the bombing campaigns of the Second World War and poetry, an investigation into the experience of bombing and being bombed, and a powerful reckoning with the morals and literature of a vanished moment.

Shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Longman/History Today Book of the Year Award

'Melancholic, surprising, unflinching, compelling, mesmeric, chilling. In its quietness and subtlety and quite beautiful writing, steals the breath away.' Daily Telegraph

'Partly a travelogue, partly an elegy to a vanished British sensibility, partly a history and a moral accounting. Scholarly, moving.' The Times

'Beautifully written, both restrained and heart-stopping in its emotions.' Literary Review

'Fascinating, intelligent, idiosyncratic.' Guardian

'Excellent, astonishing, fascinating. An exciting new kind of criticism - part literary readings, part history and part personal memoir.' New Statesman