In an interview on Pilots of the Second World War

Someone such as Tim Vigors, author of Life’s Too Short to Cry, retained his love of flying throughout his life, and even started up the Vigors Aviation company. Others, however, seemed completely traumatised by their experiences. What do you think explains the different outcomes? 

That’s right; the pilots came out differently at the end of the war. Vigors maintained a passion for flying, whereas for others it was a job, and when they completed their job and the war was over, some wanted to start families and develop their careers. Some pretty awful things happened during the war and many wanted to put it behind them. However I do think that many pilots never lost their love of flying – but whether this meant in an operational sense for the RAF was a different matter.

What do you like best about Vigors’s book? 

His accounts of aerial combat are captivating, and he writes with humility – he is prepared to record the embarrassing mistakes.

Tim Vigors’s book was published 56 years after it was written. It seems extraordinary that an account of such historical significance remained unpublished for so long. What do you regard as the explanation for this? 

A lot of these guys were quite modest, and I think they wanted to put their memories down on paper but didn’t want to be accused of shooting a line. The RAF had a culture of not bigging yourself up and I think that still remains. A lot of the veterans I met hadn’t even talked about their experiences, though this often changed once they retired and got in touch with former colleagues from the RAF. I also think there was a swell of interest in their experiences from the public that simply wasn’t there 20 years ago.