Sean Street reappraises one of World War Two's most enduring poets, the Anglo-American pilot John Gillespie Magee. He was only 19 when killed in a mid-air collision over Lincolnshire. The son of missionaries, he was educated, like his idol Rupert Brooke (for whom he wrote a poem) at Rugby, before moving to the USA. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force ahead of the US entry into the war. His sonnet 'High Flight' - read for the programme by Samuel West - is one of the best known poems of the conflict and was quoted by President Reagan following the Challenger disaster.
Others taking part are poet Andrew Motion, composer Bob Chilcott, Rubgy School librarian Rusty MacLean, aviator and Magee fan Ray Haas, Library of Congress archivist Cheryl Fox and veteran pilots from the RCAF.
First broadcast on 1st November 2009 BBC Radio 4
Presented by Sean Street
Produced by Alan Hall
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