Gavin Conroy is an accomplished aviation photographer and this pocket hardback edition of the original large-format book contains examples of his best work.
There are some stunning, beautifully framed air-to-air shots of World War 2 vintage fighter aircraft; the New Zealand landscape - much of it around Wanaka - providing unique backdrops.
Conroy has captured the classic (and sometimes not so classic) lines of many of the world's best-known fighters, the Hurricane, Spitfire, Mustang, Focke Wulf and Zero, for example, as well as others perhaps less readily identifiable, such as the Yak, Tomahawk and Lavochkin. The intensely detailed cockpit photos will set a technically minded reader's eyes darting all over the image seeking a focal point.
The author provides a short backgrounder on the aircraft marque, and a New Zealand-related history of the featured planes. For those wanting more, there's enough information and strands to set an enthusiastic reader off on more specific searches.
- Peter Donaldson is ODT deputy news editor.
Win a copy
The Otago Daily Times has five copies of Precious Metal, by Gavin Conroy (RRP $24.99), to give away courtesy of Craig Potton Publishing.
To go in the draw to win a copy, email helen.speirs@odt.co.nz with your name and postal address and ''Precious Metal Book Competition'' in the subject line, by 5pm on Tuesday, September 17. Winners will be notified.
Last week's winners
Winners of last week's giveaway, Peninsula, by Paul Sorrell and Graham Warman, courtesy of publisher Penguin were: Jane Edwards, Alan Hanson, Mavis Oskam, Bob Melville and Heather Morris, all of Dunedin.
