# Dam Buster - Hardcover

by **Richard Morris** (Author)

Sir Barnes Wallis CBE became a household name after the hit 1954 film The Dam Busters in which Michael Redgrave portrayed a shy, slightly abstracted genius at odds with bureaucracy. Yet this was a simplified picture of a complicated, mercurial man.

Wallis' contribution to British aircrafts and weapons is legendary; from the R100 intercontinental airship and innovative aircrafts like the Wellesley and Wellington, to bombs that destroyed hitherto invulnerable targets, and variable-geometry aerodynes. In addition to playing a significant part in both world wars and the Cold War, his work and inventions extended to a radio-telescope, ships, bridges, prosthetic limbs, and a nuclear-powered submarine designed to travel the world's oceans in near silence.

Yet little has been written the private Wallis; the man who fell in love with his 17-year-old distant cousin-in-law when he was 34 - and thus began a love that lasted 57 years; the man who loved the British countryside and spent every spare moment rambling. Using previously unseen letters and diaries, Barnes Wallis brings to life one of Britain's greatest inventor's: a visionary genius and private romantic; an insufferable pedant and a doting and patient son; and a self-mythologising martyr and a loyal friend.

### Author Biography

Richard Morris (b. 1947) is an archaeologist and historian. He grew up in north Worcestershire and began his career working on excavations under York Minster. Among the themes in his writing are buildings and belief (_Churches in the Landscape_ (1998); _Evensong_ (2021)), place, identity and cultural memory (_Time's Anvil_ (2013); _Yorkshire_ (2018)), and aviation and its people. _Dam Buster_ joins two earlier biographies - _Guy Gibson_ (1994) and _Cheshire: the Biography of Leonard Cheshire VC_ (2000) - which connect in the world of flight and the deeds of No. 617 Squadron RAF.

**Number of Pages:** 416

**Dimensions:** 1.5 x 9.29 x 5.91 IN

**Publication Date:** August 22, 2023

## Details

- **Price:** 34.99 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 34.99 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Dam Buster - Hardcover

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