Merlin

The Power Behind the Spitfire, Mosquito and Lancaster: The Story of the Engine That Won the Battle of Britain and WWII

By: Graham Hoyland

Narrated by: Philip Pope

The most iconic planes of WWII, the Supermarine Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane, DeHavilland Mosquito and the Avro Lancaster, were all powered by one engine, the Rolls-Royce Merlin. The story of the Merlin is one of British ingenuity at its height, of artistry and problem-solving that resulted in a war-winning design.

Published to coincide with the 75th anniversary of VE Day and the 80th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Britain, Merlin is the extraordinary story of the development of the Rolls-Royce engine that would stop Hitler from invading Britain and carry the war to the very heart of Germany.

The story of the Merlin engine encompasses the history of powered flight, from the ingenuity of the Wright Brothers to the horrors of World War I, and from the first crossing of the Atlantic to the heady days of flying in the 1920s. There is also the extraordinary story of the Schneider Trophy – an international contest wherein nations poised on the precipice of war competed for engineering excellence in the name of progress.

And at the heart of this story are the glamourous lives of the pilots, many of whom died in their pursuit of speed; the engineers, like Henry Royce of Rolls-Royce, who sketched the engine that would win WWII in the sand of his local beach; and perhaps most importantly the Lady Lucy Houston who after the Wall Street Crash singlehandedly funded the development of the engine and the iconic Spitfire.

Never was so much owed by so many to so few – and without the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, the few would have been powerless.

Critic reviews

Praise for Merlin

‘Merlin paints a finer, more detailed and complete portrait of the aero engine and the people who made it than almost any other single volume on the subject …Illuminating and entertaining’ Pilot magazine

‘To get deeper into the nuts and bolts of aviation, Graham Hoyland spent a year taking apart the story of the Merlin and putting it back together in a form that roars beautifully from the very start’ Simon Calder, Independent

‘A stirring account of how these hand-wrought machines, geared for speed and encased in elegant airframes … delivered us in 1940 … Merlin depicts a heroic age of smashed land, air and water speed records … and the extreme bravery of those pioneers, who incurred many fatalities. Hoyland marries the drama and excitement with a clear focus on the technical: he puts you in the cockpit and into the very guts of the machines … Anyone with a serious interest in engineering will find much to enjoy and appreciate.’ Colin Greenwood, The Spectator

Praise for Graham Hoyland

‘Illuminating and entertaining’ The Times

‘A towering work full of twists and turns’ Independent

‘Richly enjoyable’ Daily Mail

BRILLIANT!!!!!

Graham Hoyland is a delightful storyteller. This history of the Merlin engine is so much more than that!!! Hoyland is like a weaver of historical threads creating a work rich with knowledge of personalities, events, design, politics and human greatness and human perfidy.
If you love history that includes all the facts, but is rich with the characters and events that define human action, not just the dry facts, then please purchase this work!!
Graham Hoyland has created a history that only a deeply intelligent and richly emotional person could!!!

I bow to the author for creating a history that recreates a fascinating world, which affects us still!

My single complaint is that the narrator, an excellent, excellent reader, had some trouble with sticky mouth noise, and the recordist must have let the window open a few times because I'm pretty sure I heard birds twittering a few times...

George Young
Montreal, Canada

Too much political propaganda

Did appreciate the political propaganda and the love & affection for the usual suspects. The book presented the usual English bias and typically low opinions of rivals.

too much opinion

Most of the story was good, if a bit dull at times. What lost me was the editorializing about "the best engineering company in the world", etc.. If the author had stuck with the facts of an overall compelling story, his subject would have been better served.

Revisionism run ampk

ridiculously revisionist. entertaining, in a Hollywood sort of fashion, it doesn't meet traditional historical excellence in truthfulness, being full of half-truths and selective facts. Still, it was entertaining to listen to, much in the way the movie" Pearl Harbor, with Ben Affleck, is entertaining. Just don't rely on it as history. Should have stuck with the dry facts of engineering, left the research to his forebears, as well as the political correctness.

Mostly a history of Rolls Royce

Not quite enough material for a book just on the Merlin, so the bulk of the book is really about surrounding context and background. By the 60% mark I realized that the Merlin had not yet been introduced.