The Aviation Art of Mike Bailey

East Anglia Books

2008

Hardcover with dustjacket, 110pp. Crease to front of dustjacket, otherwise good. Fully illustrated in colour throughout.

Front jacket: "Mike is a well-known author, his talents as an artist may not be so well-known, but many will have seen his paintings, they adorn the coloured dust jackets of many books also the colour pages he has contributed over so many years to books for other authors and publishers.

Born in Norwich in the 1930's, Mike watched the increasing air activity in his native skies as the number of active airfields increased around him in World War II. As a schoolboy he watched the activities at Horsham St Faith, his local airfield. He became attached to the 458th Bomb Group and the B-24 Liberators which were based there, this aircraft became his favourite plane and he has been active in supporting all the activities of the Second Air Division of the 8th Air Force and his many contributions to their history can be seen in the Memorial Library in Norwich.

In addition to his work for authors and publishers he has carried out many private painting commissions for individuals. In the course of all this work he has completed many paintings that have never been seen outside his studio. This book presents 48 of these in colour. JOIN US on a worldwide tour through the turbulent years of the 20th century, from the RAF's F2B Fighter over the Northwest Frontier in 1925, to Amy Johnson battling turbulence over Iraq in 1930, a York climbing out of Egypt in 1955 and to finish with an Air Anglia DC-3 flying in stately progress over the Broads of Norfolk in 1973. We see the RAF with Spitfires, Wellingtons Stirlings and Lancasters during the war and the US Air Force's P-51, B-17, B-26 and B-24's through to the mighty Superfortress flying out of Tinian."