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166potential and opportunity. For my part, and I suspect for many others, I tended to see these events as individual happenings and until now have not thought of them as part of an evolutionary process. For me, two recent factors have conspired to change that view. First, the Society%u2019s seminar held in October 2010, traced the rise and fall of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, which was of particular interest to me, since I was brought up just outside the Filton airfield circuit and observed many of the company%u2019s products. Secondly, I was welcomed to the seminar by the Society%u2019s Chairman who gave me a book which he was confident I would be unable to put down until I had read it, cover to cover. He was right. Hamilton8Paterson, approached the subject matter of his book in an unusual way, which might have caused a less skilled writer to wander off the track. First, he creates a framework based on his own recollections from his youth and later years. Next he describes the exploits of some of the test pilots of the era, singling out, in particular, Gloster%u2019s Bill Waterton for whom he clearly has great admiration and respect. He then overlays the political, industrial and financial imperatives which influenced, and often impeded, the aviation industry. The author does not spare the rod and he lambasts politicians and the leaders of the industry in equal measure. Along the way, issues like the Sandys Defence Review of 1957, the earlier decision to sell jet engines to the Soviets (a move Stalin believed could never happen) and the bundling up of much engine research and its despatch to a grateful US aircraft industry all receive a measure of ridicule. The loss of a Vulcan at London Airport leads to a discussion of the problems encountered by the V8Force and its change of role to a low level bomber force. He looks critically at the development of the RAF%u2019s second8generation jet fighters: the failure of the Swift; problems with the Javelin (Waterton again) and the slow pace at which the Hunter entered service. Hamilton8Paterson%u2019s views on the failure of the early Comets illustrate how commercial aviation also suffered, with consideration being given to the little8publicised contribution of the critical angle of attack of the wing on take8off, in addition to the well known fatigue problem. The delays in the development of the Britannia are presented as evidence of the inertia which seems to have bedevilled the British aviation industry, the apparent lack of urgency with which it addressed problems being