Author Q&A: George Munday

We sat down with Flights of Fantasy author George Munday, and delved into his latest historical book project.

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Can you tell us a bit about yourself? 

The journey to the present has been interesting. I was raised in Walton, attended Gwladys Street Junior School and Priory Road Secondary, passed my  13+ and sent to John Hamilton Tech, rather than the Art School in Gambier Terrace, which was my first choice. After a good start my academic success tailed off through the efforts of an unbearable and sarcastic teacher in my final year — I think Pink Floyd wrote a song about him!

Leaving at 16, I had a series of pretty mundane jobs, until travel beckoned during the Summer of Love (1967) and over the following three years I hitch-hiked from the northern coast of Norway, to the Greek Islands and most points between, spending a year in Denmark picking tulip bulbs, working in a steel works and finally general dogsbody in a youth hostel.

Following conversation with a diverse range of acquaintances about further education — and the interesting imagery I managed to produce from my Dad's old Ross Ensign camera during my travels I returned to school to get sufficient GCEs to enrol as a mature student at Birmingham School of Photography in 1972.  On graduating, I became a photo-journalist on the Kidderminster Shuttle, a local paper in the English Midlands, then an advertising and commercial photographer in Dublin. A few years later, the business morphed into — and became — Ireland's leading stock photo agency. At the beginning of the millennium I relocated to the Copper Coast in County Waterford, and ten years later moved to Frigiliana, in Spain, the village that Christy Moore sang about in his song "Lisdoonvarna".

Your latest book, Flights of Fantasy: An Evocation of Life During and Between Two World Wars recently came out. Can you tell us what inspired it and what it’s about?

I'm pretty sure the inspiration began when I was a kid and Dad used to take me for a Sunday morning stroll through Liverpool City Centre, where the devastation following the Blitz was still very evident, something I found fascinating even at that young age. Occasionally Dad would show me his collection of watercolours and sketches, many of which he'd created between air raids while serving as a firefighter with the Auxiliary Fire Service.

Sadly he died, relatively young and unexpectedly in 1962, and those lovely pictures were nowhere to be found. Some 30 years later, while taking a last look before leaving the family home, I climbed up to  the loft and found a tea-chest full of old magazines. Buried beneath them was a cardboard box, containing two books; one, an old dog-eared hard-backed exercise book packed with the watercolours and sketches I'd seen as a child. The second was his AFS Training Manual, with his cartoons drawn on blank pages to illustrate the lighter side of his experiences in the fire service during the Liverpool Blitz. They were too good to be tucked away at the back of a drawer, unseen and unappreciated, but I was too busy to do anything with them.

When retirement and Spain coincided, I had my chance. Months of research followed and long visits to Ramsgate, where my father was born, and Liverpool where he lived from the age of 14 onwards.

Dad, aka George Snr, was born in Ramsgate in 1904. His dad was skipper on a fishing smack and  while out with young George Snr aboard, they spotted French aviator Louis Blériot making the first air crossing of the Channel. It was an experience that inspired George Snr's life-long passion for aviation, often reflected in his art that began around the same time and continued throughout his life.

It's this slightly naïve, lovely collection of images that adorn the pages of Flights of Fantasy. The lavishly illustrated story follows George Snr through his burgeoning interest in aviation during World War One, his relocation and  life in Liverpool from 1918 to 1962. The evocative memoir recalls the lives of ordinary people in the first half of the 20th century, the fun, the city, aviators in the Battle of Britain and wartime firefighters as they risked their lives fighting the fires created by the Luftwaffe during the Merseyside Blitz of 1940-41. All brought to life through the eclectic paintings and sketches of George Snr, beautifully reproduced in Flights of Fantasy.

There’s a lot of fighter aircrafts that’s mentioned throughout the book. Did you do a lot of research into the types of planes that were used back then?

Astonishingly no. My interest in aircraft was inherited at an early age from Dad,  attending air shows and reading aviation books. I should add, the previously mentioned flights of fantasy were about George Snr, all the historic facts that refer to aviation, the wars, and the role of the AFS are accurate. In the case of the latter, the late Simon Ryan of the (fire service) Heritage and Education Centre in Liverpool read and confirmed the accuracy in the sections about the Blitz.

What’s your favourite warplane? If you had the chance to fly one, which one would it be and why?

It's almost impossible to answer, I'd love to experience the pioneer flying of a Sopwith Camel, or the aerobatics of a Spitfire, or the sheer power of the jet fighters. Any would be a dream.

Have you written any other books previously?

As a landscape photographer, whilst running the picture agency I mentioned earlier, my work has appeared in countless books about Ireland. The first book I wrote and can claim as my own, came about after I moved to County Waterford in the south east of Ireland. It's a beautiful place, often missed by visitors as they make for the west coast. And so I photographed it and published Waterford, A County Revealed, with a foreword by Dervla Murphy, now in her 80s, she wrote the a pioneering travel book, Full Tilt: Ireland to India With a Bicycle, in 1965.

What are you currently reading?

Two books. Great Meadow by Dirk Bogarde is an evocation of his childhood in the 1930s is on my bedside table. Beautifully written with  an amazing recall of his younger days. The second is one I read every couple of years. It's called Happy Countryman by E.L. Roberts, written in 1956 about the time I read it after borrowing it from my local library (no I didn't knick it, but bought my own copy!) It's about wildlife, mostly birds, written in a charming, atmospheric and lyrical way and inspired the ornithologist in me - natural aviation perhaps. Naturally I also look at books by the masters of photography, Brassai, Arnold Newman, Michael Kenna or that great Liverpool photographer Edward Chambre Hardman.

Do you have any tips for aspiring authors?

Just start writing and if you get stuck, take a walk, I've usually found an answer to the problem by the time I return. If you want a book about writing, my suggestion is On Writing by Steven King.

If people wanted to get in touch with you, how can they do that?

1. The contact page on my website at https://georgemunday.art/

2. My LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgemunday/

And finally, in your own words, why should people read Flights of Fantasy?

It’s a book everyone can enjoy as it brings to life the roaring 20s, 30s and contrasting dark days of the 40s. Grandparents who lived through some of the events of the early 20th century, young adults who didn't, but would like to know what it was like. Readers with an interest in recent history; people who enjoy looking at pictures complemented with intriguing stories; and folk like you — and me — who enjoy a good yarn. It's a book that appeals to both sexes. I'm not sure who Jenny is, but she wrote on Goodreads...

"I'm really not into anything to do with wars... but the illustrations in this book pulled me in and then I couldn't stop reading... it's a lovely read and George was obviously a very talented artist. I'm glad George Jr put it all together for the rest of us to enjoy." 

I couldn't put it better myself!

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Buy Flights of Fantasy: An Evocation of Life During and Between Two World Wars by George Munday now!