In 1918, when they were born, the housemaid tied luggage labels around Tom's ankle. It was the only way to tell him and William apart. The string was still there when they went to school. The twins remained identical but were, naturally, completely different.
Tom had taken after his uncle and thrilled to the vision of the aeroplane, how it soared and turned, while William favoured the power of verse, of Tennyson and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Both poetry, looping over England.
Then the war comes. Tom, an apprentice engineer studying the laws of aerodynamics, becomes a Spitfire pilot. As England grows darker he feels himself part of something huge, beyond himself. William wants to be a poet, but that isn't really a job. Drawn to the eccentric teaching of the irrepressible James Masterman, he joins his anarchic private school, Liberty Hall.
As Tom climbs into his plane, ready to dog fight in the skies above Kent, William and Liberty Hall abandon Winchester and embark on a lunatic pilgrimage to Canterbury, walking steadfastly into danger for the safety of their souls.
The son of an aircraft engineer, Martin Corrick recounts Tom's airborne exploits with vivid intimacy, while his gift for humour is brought to hilarious realisation on the ground beneath. Order into chaos, chaos into order, with the land caught in between.
