John W. R. Taylor (1922–1999)

This is how rockets and space travel looked before there was much in the way of real rockets or space travel (1961). Aimed at boys (readers of the Eagle periodical in Britain) who, during the post-war period were fed a diet of sport, technology, physical adventure, nostalgic warfare tales and future careers. it covered all the popular topics of the day, including animals in space, rockets for war, future space laboratories and space stations, and even building plastic models. Nevertheless, show more it was profusely illustrated and accurately written for adolescent and adult readers, and nicely balanced between Soviet and American achievements and plans - something that no American book of the period, for any age group, managed to do. As a propaganda-free, sober forecast of the following decade, and a cultural snapshot of British baby-boomer enthusiasms, it holds up well today. show less

A period piece, especially in its treatment of mysterious Soviet fighters; when this book was compiled, we did not know the designation of the MiG-21, the Su-7, the Su-9 or the Yak-28, and the Tupolev Tu-128 is identified as a Yakovlev product. At least Taylor doesn't make the mistake of mis-identifying the MiG Ye-152 as a 'MiG-23', which was a bit of contemporary Soviet propaganda. (The Ye-152 never went into series production, though it was shown at the 1961 Moscow Air Day as if it show more were.)

Although intended as a spotter's book primarily for children, there are nonetheless some interesting pictures and entries; the Swiss P-16, an Aéronavale F4U Corsair, a Burmese Sea Fury, the Yugoslav J-451 Strsljen, and a Dominican P-47 Thunderbolt are of note. show less

In the early 1960s, Longacre Press produced a number of hardback 'spotter's' books under the series title 'Hippo Books'. They were ostensibly aimed at children, but they were often compiled by experts in their fields and had production values that were higher than might otherwise be expected.

When Longacre Press was taken over by Odhams, one of the ways that their new owners aimed to exploit their new property was by entering into a promotional deal with a soap powder manufacturer. They show more produced a number of the Hippo titles in paperback, slightly cut-down in size and with the author's name removed from the title page (possibly to avoid reprint fees under contract!). This is one such book, and I retain a childhood memory of this slim volume still smelling of washing powder (a fragrance long since faded)! show less

A book ostensibly for children, incorporating lots of contemporary photographs and a number of the cutaway drawings that the 'Eagle' comic was justly famous for.