(Greenhill, £18.99) Franks explores the evolution of flight and the ramifications for front-line First World War pilots. However, he is too good an historian to rely on just aviation technology.

In Dog-Fight -- as in another book co-authored with Hal Giblin called Under the Guns of the Kaiser's Aces (Grub Street, £20) -- he shows how the holders of the Blue Max and their equally distinguished British foes met their fate in these fragile machines.