Character Interview – Mary Whitworth-Baines
Thank you for having me
Rachel. My name, yes, I suppose it does. My friends have tried to get me to
talk about it, where I come from, that sort of thing. Only, I haven’t. I’ve
always said, you can choose your friends, but not your relations. Penny thinks
she has problems with her family, if only she knew the truth about mine. I saw
that raised eyebrow! My name isn’t something I’m very proud of and I gave
serious thought to changing it when I joined the Air Transport Auxiliary, but
decided there was nothing personally I’d done to be ashamed, so I kept it. I suppose
the most my friends have got out of me is that I’m something like thirty-fifth
in line to the throne, and that’s all I’ll say on the subject.
Well spotted. Actually, it is;
and I expect from what I’m about to say will let you surmise more about my
background. I do have a weakness for good clothes, always have and though it’s
not easy to come across the same quality for civilian dresses nowadays, I found
it was still possible to get a better quality uniform than what’s available
from Austin Reed. Don’t get me wrong, the issue uniforms are fine, good, I’d
even go so far to say, but I found my family’s tailor in Saville Row were still
able to make me a better uniform. Not that we tend to wear it all that much
though. Whenever we fly, we wear these things called, Sidcot Suits, which are a
bit like bags with arms and legs sewed on. That’s being a little hard actually,
as they’re really well designed for their purpose. Our boss, Jane Howell, likes
us to keep our uniform with us when we fly though. That’s so we can look
smarter if we have to take a train back to RAF Hamble. I’m not much for that
idea though as we only have quite limited space in the bags we take with us, so
they’re quite crumpled when we put them on. I sometimes wonder why I take the
trouble to iron it and I daren’t let the tailors see the state it’s in now.
Very funny, a little bird.
Yes, I suppose you can say it’s true. There’s something about their scaly legs
that give me the willies. Personally, this is another thing I blame my father
for. He took me to see the Victorian dinosaur statues at Crystal Palace Park.
Yes, I know there’s a bit of a difference in size, but to a six year-old girl
who was rarely taken out, to suddenly be confronted by these huge scaly things
was quite traumatising. They’re not accurate, to what dinosaurs really look
like now, but that’s not the point. I believe what caused my fear was when we
got back home, I went out to feed the chickens – I was fine until then – and
fell down in the run, causing the bag of feed to spill out all over me. All of
a sudden, there were roughly thirty chickens all over me, pecking and clawing
at the feed. I’ve never been the same since. Oh, and yes, I do take a certain
pleasure when I eat chicken.
As we’re not allowed to
directly take the fight to the Nazi’s, this is the best use I can put to one of
the few skills I have namely, being able to fly. By performing our job, we
actually free our front-line pilots from having to perform a job which would
cut into their rest time in between sorties. Think about it. If we weren’t
here, whenever a squadron needed a replacement aircraft, they’d have to detail
a combat pilot to go and fetch one from wherever. That would potentially make
them unavailable for a sortie, due to the time taken to actually get to
wherever the aircraft was, not to mention getting back to his base. I also
don’t like to point out the possibility of them being killed or injured if that
plane crashed before they were able to deliver it. Think what a waste of life
that would be. So, by taking that duty, and the risk, away, we potentially save
a pilot from needless loss and speed up delivery times. It’s a wonderful system
which has been honed to perfection.
Blurb:
Air
Transport Auxiliary pilot Doris Winter is accused of stealing a valuable item
from a famous Hollywood movie star, now a Captain in the US Army Air Corps,
after a dance at the air base in England where he's stationed. Gathering her
close friends together, she's determined to clear her name.
Ruth’s POW
son suffers a life-changing injury just as her own cottage takes damage in an
air raid and Penny's estranged little sister unexpectedly turns up, having run
away from school. Together with the ongoing thefts of items of clothing and
surprise personal revelations, these all threaten to hamper their
investigation.
In spite of
the worsening war situation, they must band together to rise above their
troubles and prove love and friendship is worth fighting for.
A word
about the author…
Mick is a hopeless romantic who was born in England
and spent fifteen years roaming around the world in the pay of HM Queen
Elizabeth II in the Royal Air Force before putting down roots and realizing how
much he missed the travel. He’s replaced it somewhat with his writing,
including reviewing books and supporting fellow saga and romance authors in
promoting their novels.
He’s the proud keeper of two cats bent on world domination, is mad on the music of the Beach Boys, and enjoys the theatre and humoring his Manchester United-supporting wife. Finally, and most importantly, Mick is a full member of the Romantic Novelists Association. Wild Blue Yonder is the second novel in his Broken Wings series and he is very proud to be a part of the Vintage Rose Garden at The Wild Rose Press.
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