welcome to DAREDEVIL BOOKS

Welcome to Daredevil Books, the home of classic accounts of derring-do from the last century. Thank you for visiting our website.

We create great new editions of often hard to find iconic books that explore the feats of the brave and daring on land, ice, sea and air.

We also stock original editions of our favourite daredevil fiction such as the Biggles stories and the exploits of Bulldog Drummond.

To keep up to date with all our news just click here 

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We are delighted to announce that our latest book, 'Full Throttle', the autobiography of Sir Henry 'Tim' Birkin has arrived. To read about this remarkable motor racing hero 

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our  current new editions

the biography of Amy johnson  constance Babington smith

The new Daredevil Books biography of Amy Johnson by Constance Babington Smith is regarded as the definitive account of her fascinating life. Written at the request of her family after her death in 1941 who granted access to her personal papers and letters, it provides unique insight into the life of this most recognisable of Britain's early air heroines. The book eloquently portrays the drama of her courageous flights as well as the challenges of Amy's troubled personal life. It is 80 years since Amy Johnson disappeared off the Kent coast in mysterious circumstances and a special afterword section brings the story of the search for wreckage of her crash up to date.

Our new hardback edition features forty photographs that richly illustrate Amy's life and includes a special foreword by modern pioneering aviator, Tracey Curtis-Taylor, who was inspired by Amy Johnson, and is finishing work on a film of her own intrepid exploits, Bird.

Amy Johnson was herself no stranger to appearing on film as this short news clip released at the time of her death demonstrates https://youtu.be/yyYJartqTrw

We wanted our hardback edition to be of a high quality so it has been printed for us by Blissetts in London. They hold a Royal Warrant as Bookbinder to Her Majesty the Queen and have been in business for just over 100 years. We have had the book bound in a tweed colour Colorado cloth cover. The text and photos are on a heavyweight uncoated paper with green endpapers, ribbon and headbands with a quality jacket wrap.

'Full Throttle'

'Full Throttle' is the first hand account of the racing exploits of Sir Henry 'Tim' Birkin Bt. one of the most famous of pre - War drivers. A survivor of The Great War his 'devil may care' attitude made him the most fearless and fast of the glamorous 'Bentley Boys'. We are delighted to be publishing a new edition of his racing memoir which features forty photographs from the time.

Sir Henry Birkin at the wheel of a sportscar with his silk scarf flying was the archetypal schoolboys’ hero of the inter-war years.

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Born into a wealthy family in Nottinghamshire in 1896, he had an exciting WWI as an RFC pilot, and then took up motor racing to feed his desire for adrenaline. As one of the glamorous Bentley Boys he added prestige and success to the marque’s record, and with Woolf Barnato won the ’29 Le Mans in the new Speed Six.

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The book is a first hand account of his racing career, including the development of the Blowers Bentleys, which became something of a 1930’s racing icon.

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Subsequently racing Alfa Romeo and Maserati he also continued to race his single-seater Blower, in which he twice raised the Brooklands lap record. In 1932 he was sued for libel by Brooklands, which he criticised strongly in this book; he also advocated the creation of a road circuit and government support for the sport. For 1933 he bought a 3-litre 8C Maserati and was third behind Achille Varzi and Tazio Nuvolari in the infamous ‘lottery’ Tripoli GP but after burning his arm on the exhaust pipe he developed septicaemia.

He died three weeks later, aged 37.

about 'The Last Enemy'

"One of the greatest ever classics of air warfare. This is a stunning book, an exhilarating, raw, shocking, and profoundly moving as when published during the war."

James Holland, Author, Historian and Presenter

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"One of the classic books of World War Two"

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Philip French, London Review of Books

Amy Johnson Biography

The Last Enemy is an enthralling first hand account of the experiences of  Spitfire pilot Richard Hillary. At Oxford University he was a successful oarsman and joined the Oxford University Air Squadron and the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1939. 

Stationed  just twelve miles east of London, Hillary, like the other “Brylcreem” boys of the RAF,  heroically fought against almost insuperable odds in the air during the Battle of Britain, never knowing whether the next 'scramble' would be the last.

When Hillary's plane is hit over the Channel he is horribly burned and his account of his agonising, heroic recuperation as one of plastic surgeon’s Archie McIndoe’s ‘Guinea Pig’ Club members is both moving and shocking.

Hillary survived to fly again, one last time on 8th January 1943, on a complex and hazardous night training mission in a Bristol Blenheim V. His injuries severely impaired his ability to pilot the plane and he never returned as the plane crashed into Berwickshire farmland.

This new edition features a number of photographs brought together for the first time and is published to mark the 80th anniversary of The Battle of Britain. It also features a new introduction by James Alexander Douglas-Hamilton, Baron Selkirk of Douglas, whose uncle knew Hillary well and was himself a distinguished pilot who lost his life in the war. 

listen to Richard Hillary

In a rare recording made in 1940, Richard Hillary describes in clipped tones his first day in action as he climbs into his Spitfire and rapidly climbs to 18,000 feet as one of 8 planes meeting 20 incoming ME 109's above them. Click on the link to listen.

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oUR FUTURE EDITIONS

We have an exciting publishing schedule planned with new editions of some classic accounts of bravery and derring-do by some extraordinary women and men on land, sea and air. Rediscovering these books is proving to be fascinating and we hope you gain as much pleasure as we do from our selection of books for the Daredevil collection.

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If you have any books that you would like us to consider please email us to share your thoughts. Thank you for visiting us.