Book Review: A Family of Aviators at War by Anthony Inglis Howard-Williams.

Book Review: A Family of Aviators at War by Anthony Inglis Howard-Williams

Review by Geoff Simpson

Air World 2025

ISBN: 9781036131630

272 pages Hardback Illustrated

What a remarkable family is the subject of this book. Nine RAF pilots and no shortage of other luminaries. The author, a family member but prominent in the world of music rather than aviation, tells their stories with a justified degree of awe.

The book is dense with detail. Some might not stay the course even if this were about their own family, but I found myself drawn on. Some shortening could be achieved if the author overcame his willingness to be diverted. For example, when RAF Scampton comes into one story, we are given a not entirely relevant or accurate summary of Operation Chastise, the attack on the dams.

Mr Howard-Williams does make rather a lot of mistakes regarding ranks, titles and military bodies. I had not come across the South Welsh Borderers or the United States American Air Force before. Robert Watson Watt is correct for the mid thirties. He was not knighted and did not hyphenate his surname until 1942.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed my reading of A Family of Aviators at War. Many whose interest is aviation or family history may feel the same. Some historians will gain added pleasure from debating one or two of the claims made.