BLUE SKIES: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A CANADIAN SPITFIRE PILOT IN WORLD WAR II. Olmstead, Bill. Toronto, Stoddart Publishing, 1987. 262pp, cloth, $24.95, ISBN 7737-2159-2.CIP Grades 9 and up Reviewed by Alfred F. Greenwood Volume 16 Number 3 1988 May As a Canadian fighter pilot, Bill Olmstead is, he is told, among the top dozen most decorated and the top half-dozen with the most operational flying hours. He took part in three invasions-Sicily, Italy and Normandy—always flying that legend of the skies, the Spitfire. While overseas, he kept a comprehensive diary. The material from this diary and information in an ingenious code contained in 300 letters to his mother, which she kept, compose the major portion of this book. The author joined the RCAF in August 1940 and finally achieved his ambition and was posted to a Spitfire squadron. He flew operations in North Africa, Italy and Europe. The diary and the letters give a feeling of immediacy to the text. The author is not reminiscing; he is observing, and in some detail, Olmstead's description of a dog fight over France puts the reader in the middle of the fight with all its highs and lows. A good read that allows us oldsters to recapture, if only fleetingly, our youth, and allows today's young to ponder the meaning of the word victory and the awful price it extorts. Alfred F. Greenwood, Victoria, B.C.