The Nine Lives of a Fighter Pilot, by Wing Commander K.W. Mackenzie and with a Foreword by Air Chief Marshal Sir Denis Smallwood, GBE, KCB, DSO, DFC. On many, many days it was hectic, nerve-racking, physically and mentally exhausting, but at the same time exhilarating, and stimulating. No heroics and but little, if any, sentiment . . . a job to be done to the best of our ability. Thus Ken Mackenzie writes of his Battle of Britain days based at Kenley flying Hurricanes with 501 Squadron. From Kenley he went to 247 Squadron at Predannack, flying Hurricane nightfighters. During the course of a year he shot down ten German aircraft, had a half share in four more and damaged a further four. He writes vividly and plainly of his operational experiences, including his encounter with a Messerschmitt in which, having run out of ammunition, he managed to knock off its tail, sending it crashing down. At the end of a year s combat he was shot down at night in the Channel near the French coast and was taken to a POW camp where he again became active, this time by involving himself in escape projects, until being repatriated in 1944 to take up operational instruction duties. After the war he remained in the RAF till 1967. He then went to Africa as deputy commander of the Zambian Air Force, was later in charge of Air Kenya Ltd., and after that an aviation consultant.This is the memoir of a fighter pilot that grips the reader throughout with its unvarnished sincerity.