The  "RAF in Cumbria"  was Ian’s 20th  book  including  reprints. Ian’s early works focussed mostly on Mining in Cumbria, having spent 50-years researching them.  Three  won  Lake District Book of  the Year Awards.  Ian also owned Keswick Mining  Museum for 30-years and formed  M.O.L.E.S,  Mines of Lakeland Exploration Society.

However, Ian’s  passion has  always  been  the  RAF. When commenting that he was considering writing  a book on the RAF in Cumbria, one of his group quipped, ‘well, nothing happened here.’ Ian’s 600-page detailed book proves otherwise. Ian will share a smattering of his researches. In an emotive talk we will learn what happened in and around Cumbria during WW2, how the Grim Reaper was not the Luftwaffe but the Solway Estuary, the Irish Sea and the Pennie Hills. In 1939 Cumbria has one airfield, by 1945 there were seventeen. Nothing happened in the skies of Cumbria? You bet your life it did.

Photo from https://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/the-raf-in-cumbria-and-galloway-and-north-lancashire