An interesting book to read, it forms a partial autobiography covering some of the career of a pilot in the Royal Air Force with an accent on what was his first real tour. The book is well written, avoiding acronyms and jargon without explanations, but where there is supposed to be humour it is rather stilted.
The author was one of the pilots who flew the low level Canberra bombers stationed in Germany during the Cold War but from the content it seems theirs was almost a suicide mission trying to lob nuclear bombs onto designated Warsaw Pact targets in the event of conflict. A nuclear load was always known as a “bucket of instant sunshine”, hence the title.
The author uses the first few chapters to describe how he came to be a pilot, the initial training involved, the different types of aircraft he trained on, and a comprehensive explanation of the Canberra bomber. This neatly leads in to his posting to a Canberra squadron in Germany during the early 1960's where he trains for a full tour as a Cold War Warrior.
The remaining chapters of the book cover the continuous war footing standby together with the attendant training in navigation, bombing, gunnery and the exercises involved with keeping the crews up to scratch.
This is certainly worth a read but I would have liked to see another chapter rounding the book out, with coverage of his life as a test pilot rather than what was just a very short epilogue.
Hence only four mushrooms.
Ancienturion
A Bucket of Instant Sunshine by Mike Brooke published by The History Press Ltd
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