September 1940

James Lawrence is fresh from pilot training just as England’s defences are crumbling. Excited and terrified in equal measure, he must quickly learn to fly and fight if he is to survive.

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His world is shaken when he meets glamorous Californian pilot Laura Andersen, a tomboy socialite who has defied the neutrality laws of her country to help the British cause. After a whirlwind weekend in London, James must return to the front line, perhaps never to see Laura again. But as German forces hit the beaches of southern England, an unprecedented order from Churchill grants Laura what she wants most; a place in a fighter cockpit, leaving James torn between duty to his country and his duty to protect her.

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Meanwhile, across the Channel, twenty-four-year-old Matthias Weber lives a charmed life between seafront cafés and the cockpit of his Messerschmitt fighter. When Matty rescues Marie, a French local, from the unwanted attention of the S.S. he overnight becomes an unwitting hero of the French resistance. Infatuated by the girl he saved, Matty’s dedication to his country is pitched against his hatred of the regime as he is drawn into a plan to save Marie and other Jewish families from the Nazi secret police.

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Fans of Robert Harris' Fatherland and Len Deighton's SS-GB will love The Eagle and the Empire