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Pair of Silver Wings
At the school where Edward Enderby taught for over forty years, there were few who knew he'd once been a successful fighter pilot during the war.It was not something he ever talked about - not even to his family. And for over half a century he had, for the most part, managed to put the memories of those years out of his mind. But fifty years on, he is alone - a widower - with a strained relationship with his only son, and a career behind him that has brought him respect but little affection.
In 1995, Britain is celebrating the anniversary of the end of the war, and Edward finds himself forced to confront the tragedy he suffered during those years. Embarking on a journey of self-discovery and personal redemption, Edward travels from England to Malta and then to Italy, and in doing so comes face-to-face with the idealistic young man he once was, and the devastated and traumatised 23-year-old he was to become.
Following his experiences over the skies of England in 1941, through the dark days of the Siege of Malta, to the partisan struggle in Italy, A Pair of Silver Wings is a story of friendship, love and the terrible legacy of war, exploring universal themes of grief and redemption, and one man's quest to heal the scars of the past.
In 1995, Britain is celebrating the anniversary of the end of the war, and Edward finds himself forced to confront the tragedy he suffered during those years. Embarking on a journey of self-discovery and personal redemption, Edward travels from England to Malta and then to Italy, and in doing so comes face-to-face with the idealistic young man he once was, and the devastated and traumatised 23-year-old he was to become.
Following his experiences over the skies of England in 1941, through the dark days of the Siege of Malta, to the partisan struggle in Italy, A Pair of Silver Wings is a story of friendship, love and the terrible legacy of war, exploring universal themes of grief and redemption, and one man's quest to heal the scars of the past.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
26 people are currently reading
221 people want to read
About the author
James Holland
42 books17 followersThere are more than one James Holland on GR’s database.
This is the “catch-all” profile.
For James Holland (British broadcaster/author of military history), see HERE.
This is the “catch-all” profile.
For James Holland (British broadcaster/author of military history), see HERE.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 14, 2020
I will begin by noting that this book has placed me in an emotional state beyond compare. No book has done this to me before.
Never has a book generated such a plethora of emotions. My reactions to the ending were visceral and dismay... yet there was hope. At the same time there was anger and despair and tears and smiles. I had to set the novel down before finishing the last 20 pages and really contemplate the events and compose myself.
Transitioning to the book itself the plot was absolutely brilliant. Slow building at first but increasing action and events. The main protagonist is hard to like due to his reserved nature but it is an honest depiction of what the individual must be feeling throughout the novel. Other characters really contemplate the plot and add to Edward's story.
I strongly feel that this book should be required reading in all schools. It contains all the great attributes of a novel to withstand the test of time. Entertainment for the reader, symbolism, vocabulary, love, character transformation, war, etc.
The book is, as James Holland might say, ripe with unparalleled human drama. It highlights so much of what is important and the need to recognize what happened in that that time period.
Above all the events of the novel need to never be forgotten. The events this book centers around must be taught for generations to come.
Overall, this is my first novel from James Holland and I cannot wait to read more. He truly has ways of making us talk. #WeHaveWays
Never has a book generated such a plethora of emotions. My reactions to the ending were visceral and dismay... yet there was hope. At the same time there was anger and despair and tears and smiles. I had to set the novel down before finishing the last 20 pages and really contemplate the events and compose myself.
Transitioning to the book itself the plot was absolutely brilliant. Slow building at first but increasing action and events. The main protagonist is hard to like due to his reserved nature but it is an honest depiction of what the individual must be feeling throughout the novel. Other characters really contemplate the plot and add to Edward's story.
I strongly feel that this book should be required reading in all schools. It contains all the great attributes of a novel to withstand the test of time. Entertainment for the reader, symbolism, vocabulary, love, character transformation, war, etc.
The book is, as James Holland might say, ripe with unparalleled human drama. It highlights so much of what is important and the need to recognize what happened in that that time period.
Above all the events of the novel need to never be forgotten. The events this book centers around must be taught for generations to come.
Overall, this is my first novel from James Holland and I cannot wait to read more. He truly has ways of making us talk. #WeHaveWays
September 12, 2025
A beautifully written book. The author has taken real events from WWII but has fictionalised them for this story. The characters have great depth making you eager to find out what happens next. It’s a story of romance, adventure, love and loss during wartime in Malta and Italy. A well rounded book by an author who's as good at writing fiction as he is at writing non - fiction.
August 4, 2022
I felt different emotions reading this book, and once or twice thought a few reflective moments were overdone; but it was something i could not put down for long as the character stayed with me, and the exceptional narrative transported me to different era, often leaving me somewhat emotional. Until i read the history at the end of the book i didn't realise how much of it was true, and how much research the author put into establishing the facts. It reads as an almost unbelievable war novel, with plenty of action, but its message for those reading it, is as a reminder of the brutality of war, with the inevitable heartbreak for those involved, that often leaves mental scars long after the physical ones have healed. A mesmerising journey through that awful period, and a testament to the brilliance of the author.
February 25, 2019
Few novels can truly claim to be both fictional and factual. The much abused "based on real events" really only gives license to hyperbolize historical events. This is as it should be. Any story is a crafted work, condensing and omitting tangential episodes, creating new ones to serve its main purpose: engage and entertain.
In Holland's A Pair of Silver Wings we can enjoy an engaging story, along the lines of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, an epic that can only unravel with its protagonist, Edward Enderby traveling through space (and time, effectually) in order to loop back and pick up where he left off at the end of World War Two. Actual historical events are pulled from Holland's seminal history the HIGHLY RECOMMENDABLE Italy's Sorrow and laced into the Enderby's fictional story. Here you have a well-told yarn inspired by a minute and empirical study of the Western Alliance's Mediterranean & Italian campaign in the second world war. Holland's novel gives you both: real and factual events coupled with an engaging and heart-breaking story.
An almost somatic understanding of PTSD is present here. This effect was reached by Holland after the many hundreds of hours that he has spent interviewing survivors of the war's bloodiest massacres and veterans from all the major, contributing nations that fought in the Italian campaigns: the heroically strenuous, and often quagmired effort exhibited by the Allies. One long peninsula with a determined enemy making our effort against them similar to the stalemate felt by the Allies in the First World War. Impossible terrain, mountainous country taken one peak at a time, unending rains, an internal civil war, a parity of numbers between the armies, roving bands of partisans and paramilitaries from both sides behind the fronts: hell on Earth. Holland has been able to study all the effects mentioned above on combatants and non-combatants alike. His is an almost anthropological understanding of that time and place--so much so that you can either read A Pair of Silver Wings or Italy's Sorrow and walk away with an equal understanding of what it must have been like. "Soft under-belly," indeed!
As to a "Spielbergian" ending: I would like to say that Holland is sharing his own enlightened observation that those men and women with whom he spoke to felt better by not ignoring those horrible years in their lives but by incorporating them into their own life's narratives. We carry a novel in our heads and we're our own protagonists. By failing to incorporate the traumatic effects of our most heinous moments we risk becoming detached to our loved ones, not valuing them as key factors in whom we've become. To put it a simpler way: you're living a lie by ignoring or suppressing your past. Memory leads to mending-- which inevitably leads to loving. This is what Holland is suggesting with Enderby's Scrooge-like, sea-changed awareness. What's worth noting is how said discovery was made by Holland via personal exchanges with the people who lived it.
In Holland's A Pair of Silver Wings we can enjoy an engaging story, along the lines of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, an epic that can only unravel with its protagonist, Edward Enderby traveling through space (and time, effectually) in order to loop back and pick up where he left off at the end of World War Two. Actual historical events are pulled from Holland's seminal history the HIGHLY RECOMMENDABLE Italy's Sorrow and laced into the Enderby's fictional story. Here you have a well-told yarn inspired by a minute and empirical study of the Western Alliance's Mediterranean & Italian campaign in the second world war. Holland's novel gives you both: real and factual events coupled with an engaging and heart-breaking story.
An almost somatic understanding of PTSD is present here. This effect was reached by Holland after the many hundreds of hours that he has spent interviewing survivors of the war's bloodiest massacres and veterans from all the major, contributing nations that fought in the Italian campaigns: the heroically strenuous, and often quagmired effort exhibited by the Allies. One long peninsula with a determined enemy making our effort against them similar to the stalemate felt by the Allies in the First World War. Impossible terrain, mountainous country taken one peak at a time, unending rains, an internal civil war, a parity of numbers between the armies, roving bands of partisans and paramilitaries from both sides behind the fronts: hell on Earth. Holland has been able to study all the effects mentioned above on combatants and non-combatants alike. His is an almost anthropological understanding of that time and place--so much so that you can either read A Pair of Silver Wings or Italy's Sorrow and walk away with an equal understanding of what it must have been like. "Soft under-belly," indeed!
As to a "Spielbergian" ending: I would like to say that Holland is sharing his own enlightened observation that those men and women with whom he spoke to felt better by not ignoring those horrible years in their lives but by incorporating them into their own life's narratives. We carry a novel in our heads and we're our own protagonists. By failing to incorporate the traumatic effects of our most heinous moments we risk becoming detached to our loved ones, not valuing them as key factors in whom we've become. To put it a simpler way: you're living a lie by ignoring or suppressing your past. Memory leads to mending-- which inevitably leads to loving. This is what Holland is suggesting with Enderby's Scrooge-like, sea-changed awareness. What's worth noting is how said discovery was made by Holland via personal exchanges with the people who lived it.
March 9, 2019
Good themes. Could have been great with better prose stylist. Also slightly irritating when little facts jar - like a 'new belt for the Bren gun'. Holland does know about Malta though. I've read his other books on the subject. That was the best part of this book - the inside the head view of what it was like to be a fighter pilot in that battle - which left the Battle of Britain for dead in terms of psychological intensity. Geoff Wellum does a good job of bringing that out as well. As I said - good themes of the effects of love and war.
March 10, 2019
I am perhaps slightly biased due to a family connection to James, but I can honestly say this was a beautifully written book that is nothing like any war novel I have ever read. Using real events and activities carried out during WW2 as a basis for the story of Edward. Most war stories always seem to focus hugely heroic and dramatic events, a pair of silver wings quietly tells the story of real people caught up in a horrific time in history. Not ashamed to say, I blubbed my way through the last 30 pages...
October 7, 2020
Maybe 4.5 stars. Just good story-telling about a little-known part of WWII regarding the Island of Malta and, most importantly, the partisan fighters in the mountains of Italy. An exceptional historical novel
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April 7, 2025Brilliant
I actually felt as though I was an eye witness to all the story lines held in this book. Loosely based on true stories, you take a WW2 tour of Britain, Malta and Italy with a spitfire pilot. I was sad to reach the end
I actually felt as though I was an eye witness to all the story lines held in this book. Loosely based on true stories, you take a WW2 tour of Britain, Malta and Italy with a spitfire pilot. I was sad to reach the end
April 16, 2020
An excellent and vivid story of the life of a young fighter pilot in WW2, very well written and based on real events.
May 27, 2008
Let down badly by sloppy editing - one character is introduced as Canadian, then becomes a New Zealander a few pages later, while another unfortunate soul changes from Chuck to Buck and back again in the few paragraphs it takes to describe his death in the air. The main character, former Spitfire pilot Edward Enderby, is rather unsympathetic at the start and it was only during the book's closing chapters that I warmed to him and started to care about his life and career. Despite all this, I always found myself wanting to read just one more chapter.
March 18, 2011
well written and entertaining. A bit more like biography as fiction. The story arc is carried by an elderly man coming to terms with what happened to him as a Spitfire pilot in WW2 and contains sections of narrative dealing with WW2. Gents who enjoy WW2 material on the History Channel will enjoy this one particularly I think.
December 9, 2011
Interesting story, lots of flying, Italian partisans and Malta in WW2. Good characters - loved it.,
November 18, 2012
War time story of pilot training in Little risington with item about Kingham, Malta and witness horrors of war in Italy. Entertaining good read.
July 8, 2014
great book gives a true feeling of the time and the people .the bravery and the fear, and loss of comrades
June 15, 2014
A good read - well researched.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews