Hopeless Spitfire Book

[dr_gn]

I saw this book in the shop at Duxford on Sunday:



Absolutely priceless, especially considering the title.

[KieronGSi]

Boooooooo, that's just awful.

[dr_gn]

How on EARTH could that happen? Surely the author should know better having just written a book on Spitfires. Unbelievable.

[rhinochopig]

Is that one of those 3/4 "scale" microlight things?

Perhaps it's to show just how complete the history is. Did it have a chapter on the car

[dr_gn]

rhinochopig said:

Is that one of those 3/4 "scale" microlight things?

Perhaps it's to show just how complete the history is. Did it have a chapter on the car

Yeah, an absolute atrocity. It took me a while to accept what my eyes were telling me, but having thumbed through the book, it's apparently not a joke - it is supposed to be a genine book on Spitfires.

[Simpo Two]

Time for a letter to the publisher methinks.

[Steve_D]

So who at Duxford allowed it on the shelf?

Steve

[Getragdogleg]

Please educate me. What am I looking at ?

My WW2 era aviation anorak is unworn.

[Eric Mc]

It is a book that claims to be a book on the famous Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft of WW2.

The large picture on the dust cover doesn't actually show a Spitfire. It shows a 2/3 scale replica kit plane.

[dr_gn]

Eric Mc said:

It is a book that claims to be a book...

[dr_gn]

Steve_D said:

So who at Duxford allowed it on the shelf?

Steve

I dunno, but it caused a huge expungement of bile, made worse when my wife - alerted by my state of stuttering incomprehension - asked ifI'd like it for my birthday.

[Getragdogleg]

Eric Mc said:

It is a book that claims to be a book on the famous Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft of WW2.

The large picture on the dust cover doesn't actually show a Spitfire. It shows a 2/3 scale replica kit plane.

Crikey, that is somewhat of an oversight. I confess I looked up the differences between the Spitfire and the Hurricane just to make sure it was not that sort of mistake.

[davepoth]

dr_gn said:

Steve_D said:

So who at Duxford allowed it on the shelf?

Steve

I dunno, but it caused a huge expungement of bile, made worse when my wife - alerted by my state of stuttering incomprehension - asked ifI'd like it for my birthday.

[Seti]

Getragdogleg said:

Crikey, that is somewhat of an oversight. I confess I looked up the differences between the Spitfire and the Hurricane just to make sure it was not that sort of mistake.

I did the same. Now that really would have been a ridiculous error!

[Crafty_]

dr_gn said:

How on EARTH could that happen? Surely the author should know better having just written a book on Spitfires. Unbelievable.

You assume the author picked the pictures.

More likely some unknowing individual at a publishing house gets tasked with getting some pictures for the front cover of the book, they search a catalog of images, finds a plane that sort of looks right, pays whatever royalty and bobs yer uncle.

I see quite a lot of books get a new cover after a few years, the author may not even be aware.

I guess one of the reasons why you'd want to use a specialist publisher I would guess ?

[Simpo Two]

At least it wasn't published by the Daily Mail. If it had been, there really would be a picture of a Hurricane on the front.

[Crafty_]

Simpo Two said:

At least it wasn't published by the Daily Mail. If it had been, there really would be a picture of a Hurricane on the front.

Nah, they'd probably use a picture of a jet

[dr_gn]

Crafty_ said:

dr_gn said:

How on EARTH could that happen? Surely the author should know better having just written a book on Spitfires. Unbelievable.

You assume the author picked the pictures.

More likely some unknowing individual at a publishing house gets tasked with getting some pictures for the front cover of the book, they search a catalog of images, finds a plane that sort of looks right, pays whatever royalty and bobs yer uncle.

I see quite a lot of books get a new cover after a few years, the author may not even be aware.

I guess one of the reasons why you'd want to use a specialist publisher I would guess ?

Yeah but. "A complete illustrated encyclopedia" implies that the content is based to an extent on images - yet the front cover image is wrong. Doesn't anyone check these things?

I realise there's a huge shortage of books on the Spitfire, but even so - this is just taking the piss.

ETA isn't it usual to caption the front and back cover images of a book somewhere or other? Unsurprisingly I couldn't find any.

Edited by dr_gn on Tuesday 28th May 23:10

[mybrainhurts]

Oh dear, oh very dear...

[mybrainhurts]

I've contacted the author and pointed out his little error.

He's mortified and they're redoing the cover right now.

He asked if this is ok...