Spitfire, Lancaster, and Tornado all followed the same format of using the often fascinating stories of those involved to tell a bigger story, and Eject! He devised and presented 2 series of Survivors, interviewing newsmakers who have been through life changing experiences. As with his previous books, there are some less pleasant aspects of the story that some could be tempted to ‘sweeten’, or even brush over altogether, but it seems that due respect was given to the important part played by the not so pleasant aspects of the story, which is refreshing. No one would ever want to have to use an ejection seat, but thank goodness some people have – and have lived to tell the tale. The story is chronological from the early days of the seats being developed- a ripping yarn in itself, with some fantastic characters testing them- and then moves forward through several aerial conflicts, and other incidents in between.

In 1928, he moved to Denham in Buckinghamshire, where he hung a sign on the front of an old linoleum factory, “Martin’s Aircraft Works”. We see how the technology was adapted when the prospect of crashing in North Vietnam was sometimes preferable to ejecting and risking capture; what happens to the body when it is catapulted from an aircraft under great force; how an ejectee can be rescued from enemy territory.

Nichol is perhaps at his best in his account of the early work of the Martin-Baker Aircraft Company, the pioneering British manufacturer of ejection seats, whose products – as of the date of publication – have saved 7,681 lives. Since those first post-Second World War ejections, many tens of thousands of lives have been saved by increasingly sophisticated escape systems.

charts the astonishing and deeply moving story of military medics from the WW2 beaches of Dunkirk to the desert towns of Afghanistan today. Out of the 4 books in the group I thought this would be the one I least enjoyed, but it was fascinating and told the stories of each ejection featured very well. Packed with interviews with aircrew who know exactly how it feels to ‘Bang Out’ from an aircraft at high speed, both in peace and in war, the book gives the reader a vivid sense of what that life-saving experience feels like, but also features the moving accounts of what happens next, from the viewpoint of both the crews and their families, who often have little or no information about whether or not their loved ones have survived.

Most works of popular narrative non-fiction could be written by anyone with a small amount of talent, as well as enough time, energy, commitment and a decent library.

begins with Nichol interviewing Lancaster, whose story serves as an important reminder that, as well as being a book about engineering, this is fundamentally a book about “what it means to be given another chance”.He has written for The Times, The Mail on Sunday and The Observer and is a widely quoted commentator on military affairs. I especially liked the way several airmen’s and navigator’s stories were interwoven through the book as it progressed. That the two men survived their ordeal was due not only to their bravery and resilience but also – obviously – to the existence of aircraft ejection seats. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.