The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

Barnes 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 about 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, Richard Morris brings to life one of Britain’s greatest inventors.