A Sister’s Courage. Molly Green

Читать онлайн.
Название A Sister’s Courage
Автор произведения Molly Green
Жанр Сказки
Серия The Victory Sisters
Издательство Сказки
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9780008332457



Скачать книгу

d="uf16d3771-5835-521a-a9d0-2e9d8160c896">

      

      A SISTER’S COURAGE

      Molly Green

Avon. Logo

       Copyright

      Published by AVON

      A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019

      Copyright © Molly Green 2019

      Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019

      Cover photographs © Rekha Arcangel / Arcangel Images (Women), Stephen Mulcahey / Arcangel Images (Airfield), Shutterstock.com (Sky and planes)

      Molly Green asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780008332440

      Ebook Edition © November 2019 ISBN: 9780008332457

      Version: 2019-11-22

       Dedication

       To all those remarkable women in the Air Transport Auxiliary who risked their lives every day to make sure their male counterparts had the planes they urgently needed for training and combat. There were 168 female pilots including four female engineers who joined the ATA during the war years, along with their male counterparts – sadly, there were a number of fatalities.

       I would like to make a special dedication to Pauline Gower, a qualified pilot before the war with her own aviation business, who successfully fought for the right of female pilots to be allowed to join the Air Transport Auxiliary along with the men, and was appointed Senior Commander of the women’s section.

       Before the war it was unheard of for women to have equal pay in any job whatsoever, but in May 1943 Miss Gower was the first person in any company or organisation to obtain equal pay for the women pilots in the Air Transport Auxiliary. She pushed home the point that her pilots were doing exactly the same job and taking exactly the same risks every day as the men. She refused to take no for an answer – a truly outstanding achievement.

       Unfortunately, after the war, the gap between male and female pilots’ pay was once again firmly in place.

       Tragically, in 1947 Pauline Gower died at only 36 having just given birth to twin sons who thankfully survived. Who knows what more she might have achieved if she’d had a longer life?

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

      Copyright

      Dedication

      Before …

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

       Chapter Ten

       Chapter Eleven

       Chapter Twelve

       Chapter Thirteen

       Chapter Fourteen

       Chapter Fifteen

       Chapter Sixteen

       Chapter Seventeen

       Chapter Eighteen

       Chapter Nineteen

       Chapter Twenty

       Chapter Twenty-One

       Chapter Twenty-Two

       Chapter Twenty-Three

       Chapter Twenty-Four

       Chapter Twenty-Five

       Chapter Twenty-Six

       Chapter Twenty-Seven

       Chapter Twenty-Eight

       Chapter Twenty-Nine

       Chapter Thirty

       Chapter Thirty-One

       Chapter Thirty-Two

       Chapter Thirty-Three

       Chapter Thirty-Four

       Chapter Thirty-Five

       Acknowledgements

       Reading List

       Keep Reading …

       About the Author

       Also by Molly Green

       About the Publisher

       Before …

       Bromley, Kent, April 1936

      ‘Can I go up, Daddy? Please.’

      ‘Your mother said I was not to let you.’ Raine’s father looked down at his daughter, taller than most fourteen-year-olds, with long, spindly arms and legs. He couldn’t help smiling at the set of her chin, her clear violet eyes, just like her mother’s, the long dark wavy hair lifting slightly in the breeze. Yes, she was a beautiful girl – everyone said so. Which was why her mother was determined to protect her.

      ‘I don’t know why you want her to go and see such a dangerous performance,’ Simone said when he’d told her he was taking their daughter to watch Cobham’s Flying Circus perform at West Malling. ‘But if you insist to go against my wishes you must not allow her into one of those contraptions.’

      ‘You should come with us.’ Robert gazed at his wife fondly. She