Betty Beatty

[from endpapers] THE COLOURS OF THE NIGHT

Against the background of a heavy bomber aerodrome, and intertwined with the lives of three other girls, this novel tells the love story of an airwoman and an officer -- Virginia Bennett and Colin Craig.

After many war novels from a man's point of view, here is a well-observed and psychologically penetrating portrait of women in the Services. The four girls live jampacked with many others in Hut Five, to the accompaniment of bomber operations and the petty frustrations of Service life.

This is a novel of contrasts: easy freedom for the aircrew and severity for the girls; the coloured lamps over a dance floor and the white light of bomb bursts; the indulgent attitude of their male commanders beside the harshness of their own sex. The enemy not the Germans but the female authority over them. While over all, like a patient axe in the sky, Messerschmitt reconnaissance aircraft watch and wait and report back...

[from inside dj flap] To most women, the career of air stewardess must seem the most interesting and romantic of all. Pamela Hughes thought so too. She was the youngest and most eager of the embryo stewardesses on Skywide Airlines' Air Hostess Course, enjoying every moment of her training, the excitement of her trips to colourful far-away places, and the crowning dignity of her first transatlantic flight. But even the most glamorous job has its problems, and Pamela was to have her share -- in the form of Roger Carson, the attractive Technical Instructor, who disapproved of women on the airline in general, and, it seemed, of Pamela in particular.