Becky Aikman, Spitfires, Female Pilots of World War II

Becky Aikman, author of the riveting new book, Spitfires, has always been drawn to adventure -- at least to writing about it. The subjects in her books are real women who have broken with convention to create new lives for themselves even as they change the world.

The Spitfire pilots of WWII lived an adventure more exciting than fiction. They were celebrated at the time but then largely forgotten. To bring them back to life, Aikman traveled to England to go through records, investigate crashes, find witnesses, and take in the history of the airfields, country estates, and London hotels and clubs where the story she would ultimately write took place.

In the United States, Aikman met the pilots' families and interviewed Nancy Miller, the one flyer still living at the age of 104. They all shared diaries and letters filled with intimate details, never before seen by the public.

Aikman grew up in rural Pennsylvania and moved to New York to earn a master’s degree at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she was awarded the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship. "I had a blast covering the worlds of entertainment, media, and other creative industries for BusinessWeek and New York Newsday," she shares.

When she was widowed at a young age, she decided to leave daily journalism and write the book Saturday Night Widows. It’s the true story of how she put together a mismatched group of five other young widows to share the adventure of remaking their lives. "We remain great friends today," says Aikman. 

Her next book was Off the Cliff, about the maverick filmmakers who created the classic women's film Thelma & Louise.

Aikman and her books have appeared on CBS This Morning, the Katie Couric Show, NPR, and in articles in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and O, the Oprah magazine. She speaks to groups across the country about both her personal and professional journey.

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