Molly Green - A Sister’s Courage

Published by AVON

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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2019

Copyright © Molly Green 2019

Cover design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2019

Cover photographs © Rekha Arcangel / Arcangel Images (Women), Stephen Mulcahey / Arcangel Images (Airfield), Shutterstock.com(Sky and planes)

Molly Green asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008332440

Ebook Edition © November 2019 ISBN: 9780008332457

Version: 2019-11-22

To all those remarkable women in the Air Transport Auxiliary who risked their lives every day to make sure their male counterparts had the planes they urgently needed for training and combat. There were 168 female pilots including four female engineers who joined the ATA during the war years, along with their male counterparts – sadly, there were a number of fatalities.

I would like to make a special dedication to Pauline Gower, a qualified pilot before the war with her own aviation business, who successfully fought for the right of female pilots to be allowed to join the Air Transport Auxiliary along with the men, and was appointed Senior Commander of the women’s section.

Before the war it was unheard of for women to have equal pay in any job whatsoever, but in May 1943 Miss Gower was the first person in any company or organisation to obtain equal pay for the women pilots in the Air Transport Auxiliary. She pushed home the point that her pilots were doing exactly the same job and taking exactly the same risks every day as the men. She refused to take no for an answer – a truly outstanding achievement.

Unfortunately, after the war, the gap between male and female pilots’ pay was once again firmly in place.

Tragically, in 1947 Pauline Gower died at only 36 having just given birth to twin sons who thankfully survived. Who knows what more she might have achieved if she’d had a longer life?

Contents

Cover

Title Page A SISTER’S COURAGE Molly Green

Copyright

Dedication

Before …

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Five

Acknowledgements

Reading List

Keep Reading …

About the Author

Also by Molly Green

About the Publisher

Bromley, Kent, April 1936

‘Can I go up, Daddy? Please .’

‘Your mother said I was not to let you.’ Raine’s father looked down at his daughter, taller than most fourteen-year-olds, with long, spindly arms and legs. He couldn’t help smiling at the set of her chin, her clear violet eyes, just like her mother’s, the long dark wavy hair lifting slightly in the breeze. Yes, she was a beautiful girl – everyone said so. Which was why her mother was determined to protect her.

‘I don’t know why you want her to go and see such a dangerous performance,’ Simone said when he’d told her he was taking their daughter to watch Cobham’s Flying Circus perform at West Malling. ‘But if you insist to go against my wishes you must not allow her into one of those contraptions.’

‘You should come with us.’ Robert gazed at his wife fondly. She was French, twenty-one years younger than him, and she tried hard during their marriage to keep him in line. Sometimes it worked. But not today. He intended to keep his promise to his daughter to at least take her to watch the spectacle.

‘You think I want my shoes muddy, my coat splashed in some ’orrible field?’ she’d said, her eyes flashing.