Bomber County
by Daniel Swift
In researching the life of his grandfather, Daniel Swift became engrossed in the connections between air war and poetry. The product of this research is Swift’s first book, Bomber County, published by Hamish Hamilton in August 2010.
In early June 1943, James Eric Swift, a pilot with 83 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, boarded his Lancaster bomber for a night raid on Münster and disappeared. The story of the author’s search for his lost grandfather through military and civilian archives and in interviews conducted in the Netherlands, Germany and England, is combined with a study of the relationship between the bombing campaigns of the Second World War and the poetry of the time.
The book’s publication triggered a torrent of reviews: critics have called it ‘an astonishing debut’, ‘precise and incisive’, ‘accomplished and moving’ and ‘a poetical work in itself’. A C Grayling described the book as ‘profound and beautiful’ and praised Swift’s ‘synoptic understanding and breadth of intellectual sympathy’.
The uniqueness of this work is a particular cause for admiration. Here is an extract from Literary Review:
‘An original, meditative and arresting memorial . . . a beautifully written book, both restrained and heart-stopping in its emotions and devoid of mannerisms and tricks. It’s a perfect miniature about war and mourning which ranks with Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory’.