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(above: the review in issue 1) Book Review Red Arrows Red Arrows by Richard Baker £19, Hardcover, 250 pages, Dalton Watson www.daltonwatson.com The first time I remember seeing an aerobatic display team was as a 7 year old boy on holiday in France. The memory is a little opaque but we were at an air show and these French Air Force guys did all the loops and the flypasts with the coloured smoke trails – I think I even got introduced to one of the blue suited pilots at an exhibition stand later in the day. But the curious thing is, not only do I not remember the name of the aerobatic team concerned, but I’m also sure that even at that tender age I was thinking to myself – well they aren’t as good as the Red Arrows are they. Now this may not be a very accurate memory, but it does indicate the position of honour and pride that our very own beloved aerobatic display team inspires in the British national consciousness. Richard Baker’s book "Red Arrows" goes a good way to explaining this abiding affection and respect for these extraordinary men in their flying machines. It’s clear from the outset that the author had a quite remarkable level of access to the Red Arrows during the year or so he spent following and photographing them for this book – it is also clear that he came away from the experience even more impressed than when he first arrived at their training base in Lincolnshire at the beginning of 2004. Richard Baker is an award winning reportage photographer with a particular interest in planes and flying. To live and fly with arguably the world’s best and most famous aerobatic display team was clearly a dream come true for him. The result is in no way disappointing. His photographs are stunning and there are over 150 of them in this book – a real visual feast. Remarkably, I found the ground based photos of the admiring crowds and curious children just as riveting as the more obviously spectacular shots taken from the photographer’s potentially stomach churning seat behind a pilot of the British Aerospace Hawk aircraft that the red arrows have been using since 1980. Alongside all these superb images the author gives us an account of the Red Arrows: their history, their personnel and their day to day life. This account is really what sells the book for me. Written in an admiring but never fawning style, the author reveals many extraordinary facts and figures about the Red Arrows and his personal experience with them. For example, a team of crack maintenance men and women known as "The Blues" keep the Red Arrows pilots in the air all year round and out-number them by 8:1. And did you know that most pilots only stay with the Arrows for 3 years. Two or three new recruits are handpicked from the Red Arrows by Richard Baker Buy from MaVista cream of the RAF to join the team each year as replacements for the pilots who have finished their tour of duty. All the pilots wear standard RAF green during their strenuous and demanding winter training, until on a daunting day in May they must perform for a panel of RAF top brass to get a new "Public Display Authority" – without this they can’t even do a fly past at the local gymkhana. Once they get this PDA (and they always pass with literally flying colours) they symbolically discard the old green suits and don their brand new tailor-made red suits and become Red Arrows all over again. This sort of detailed information along with much else that is both fascinating and extraordinary, enhance the superb photography, making this a great book and certainly not one just for the flying enthusiast. Dave Harries www.daveharries.com