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Richard Hillary (1919–1943)

Auteur de Le dernier ennemi

8+ oeuvres 370 utilisateurs 10 critiques

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Œuvres de Richard Hillary

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Nom légal
Hillary, Richard Hope
Date de naissance
1919-04-20
Date de décès
1943-01-08
Lieu de sépulture
ashes were scattered from a Douglas Boston over the English Channel
Sexe
male
Nationalité
Australia
Lieu de naissance
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Lieu du décès
Greenlaw, Berwickshire, Scotland, UK
Lieux de résidence
Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK
Études
Shrewsbury School
Oxford University (Trinity College)
Professions
fighter pilot
memoirist
Organisations
Royal Air Force
Courte biographie
Richard Hillary was born in Sydney, Australia, the son of Edwyna and Michael Hillary, a government official. He was sent to England to be educated at Shrewsbury School and Oxford University. At age 20 in October 1939, after the start of World War II, he was called up to the Royal Air Force. In July 1940, having completed his training as the Battle of Britain was beginning, he was posted to RAF Montrose in Scotland, flying Spitfires. His squadron moved south to RAF Hornchurch in August 1940 and immediately saw combat. In one week of action, Hillary personally claimed five German Messerschmitt fighter planes shot down, claimed two more probably destroyed, and one damaged. On September 3, 1940 he was shot down himself. He passed out inside his flaming Spitfire and was unable to to bail out, sustaining extensive burns to his face and hands before falling out of the plane. Regaining consciousness while falling through space, he deployed his parachute and landed in the North Sea. He rescued by a lifeboat from the Margate Station and taken for medical treatment to the Royal Masonic Hospital in London. He endured three months of repeated surgery in an attempt to repair the damage to his hands and face. He wrote a memoir of his experiences, published in 1942 as The Last Enemy in Great Britain and as Falling Through Space in the USA. In 1941, Hillary persuaded the British authorities to send him to the USA to rally support for Britain's war effort. While there, he spoke on the radio, had a love affair with Merle Oberon, and drafted much of The Last Enemy. Hillary managed to return to flying even though, as was noted in the officers' mess, he could barely handle a knife and fork. He returned to service at RAF Charterhall in the Scottish Borders. He was killed on January 8, 1943, along with Navigator/Radio Operator Sgt. Wilfred Fison, when he crashed a Bristol Blenheim night fighter during a night training flight in adverse weather conditions.

Membres

Critiques

Late last year, I came across a small quarterly magazine/journal by the name of Slightly Foxed ( https://foxedquarterly.com ) and was intrigued, so I subscribed.

The quarterly 'simply' has people writing about a forgotten or underappreciated book that the writer believes would be of interest to a wider audience. The most recent edition I have is No 73 Spring 2022 (its a publication from the UK, so its March 2022 that I read it) looked at 16 different authors/books across a wide range of topics etc.

Of those authors/works featured I was aware of 5 of the 16 authors in the spotlight. I have read works by 5 of them (some only a little and not the work in question; some a lot but again not the work in question; the last was the actual book in question but only because having read the article, I immediately acquired and read the book (my review is [here]).

Slightly Foxed (amongst other things) also publishes a limited edition (of some 2000 copies; approx 60 or so books as of March 2022) of a series of memoirs across a wide range.

I have purchased a random selection of them and have read 2 of them so far. (Sorry for the long introduction but) one of them is the book in question here: The Last Enemy by Richard Hillary.

It tells very briefly of the early life and education of the author but concentrates on his training for, participation in as a fighter pilot and death in the Second World War. My mention of his death is not a spoiler, as it is evident from early on in the book.

It depicts the wide variety of attitudes and reactions of people when faced with the prospect of participation in the war effort: from at least pacifist; a number of patriotic fighters; people from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, which were not at that time directly involved or at least directly affected by the War; those who were only interested in the challenge of defeating an enemy. And the question of whether any of those attitudes changed over the course of the War and if so why?

Neither the description of the War nor people's participation is not jingoistic nor glorified. And whilst some of the events and the deaths were in themselves horrifying, were not described that made one's stomach turn.

Much of the memoir is less about the War itself than about the group of friends and fellow travellers of the author.

And it depicts an England and a London of a different era. and with the Russian invasion of Ukraine going on as I write, one can only think of the suffering and despair and loss of life that is being repeated (regardless whatever one thinks of the respective merits of the claims of the warring countries.

A compelling read and a reflection on humanity and on the humanity of people.

Big Ship

14 March 2022
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
bigship | 9 autres critiques | Feb 16, 2022 |
Described by critics as "not a book written by a pilot about the war, but a book written by a writer about a pilot", The Last Enemy tells the story of a young writer's experiences as a Spitfire pilot in training and during the Battle of Britain, and of the life he led after being shot down.
Richard Hillary begins his story with a gripping account of his flight from Hornchurch on September 3, 1940, up and out over the Channel and into ferocious aerial combat, "a blur of twisting machines and tracer bullets". His plane hit and hurtling towards the water, Richard bails out of the flaming cockpit and parachutes into the Channel where, hours later, he is eventually rescued by the Margate lifeboat.

The Last Enemy then tells the extraordinary and moving story surrounding that September day. It describes carefree days at Trinity College, Oxford, light-hearted competitive rowing in Germany and Hungary, training as a fighter pilot, aerial combat and then, after being shot down and cruelly burnt by the flames, of a slow and painful recovery. Richard tells also of great friendship and of tragic loss and - in yet more sombre tones - of intense and agonizing personal reflection and questioning about his own war experience, which transformed him fromm a gifted and handsome athlete, admired and envied by his contemporaries, into a ravaged figure. Unsure of whether or not he would ever be passed fit enough to fly again, Richard asks himself what he can do for those who have died? As he himself wrote: "Then after a while it came to me. I could write." And so he came to write The Last Enemy.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
MasseyLibrary | 9 autres critiques | Jul 3, 2020 |
The Last Enemy (first published in America as Falling Through Space), is a war memoir written by the Second World War Anglo-Australian fighter pilot Richard Hillary detailing his experiences during the Battle of Britain in 1940. It details his experiences as a Spitfire pilot during the Battle of Britain, during which he was shot down in action, sustaining severe injuries, severely facially scarred. The Last Enemy, taken from (I Corinthians 15:26, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death".
(Recommended by David Mamet)
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
MasseyLibrary | 9 autres critiques | Oct 22, 2018 |
 
Signalé
mahallett | 9 autres critiques | Jun 14, 2015 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
8
Aussi par
3
Membres
370
Popularité
#65,128
Évaluation
½ 3.7
Critiques
10
ISBN
46
Langues
8

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