Books by Steve Buster Johnson

I had two books published in February 2026. The first was The Cordwainer's Daughter, the true story of my maternal grandmother who grew up in England during Victorian times and experienced life under six British Monarchs. Ethel Pocock is also the co-star character of my first book, For God England & Ethel, a biography of my grandfather but Ethel's story is as compelling as that of Fred Johnstone, my grandfather.

 

The second book, Rigger's Notes for British WW1 Aircraft is the reproduction of a WW1 Training Handbook on how to rig the wings and fuselage of nine British military aircraft in service at that time:

Maurice Farman Long Horn (1913 Type)

Maurice Farman Short Horn (1914 Type)

Royal Aircraft Factory FE2b

Royal Aircraft Factory BE2c

De Havilland (later Airco) DH1

De Havilland (later Airco) DH2

Avro 504

Bristol Scout (Type ‘C’)

Vickers FB5 (Gunbus)

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The book includes detailed drawings as well as 'step by step' instructions for riggers in training at RAF Thetford.

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Another writing project on the 'drawing board' is a factual novel set in Iraq during the nineteen-twenties, highlighting the dangers and depravations experienced by the Royal Air Force squadrons based in Baghdad "between the wars". The fighting in Mesopotamia is a largely forgotten conflict, as are the deaths of hundreds of Royal Air Force and British Army personnel whose bodies lie in a deserted and unprotected RAF cemetery at Hinaidi, a southern suburb of Baghdad, compared to hundreds of other servicemen who died during the same conflict but by chance were buried at the well-tended war cemeteries at Baghdad North Gate and Habbaniya, both of which have been recently refurbished by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The provisional title for the book is Above the Sands of Iraq.

 

The other six books I have already published are Rising from the Flanders Mud, Over the Western Front  (the story of 6 Squadron which fought over the Western Front during the Great War), For God, England & Ethel (a biography of my grandfather who served with 6 Squadron during WW1), Seven Days in April (a Royal Flying Corps historical novel in the genre of a murder / mystery), Leaning on a Lamp Post (an autobiography covering the early part of my life in the UK, shortly after the end of WW2) and A Man of Many Letters, All can be purchased from Amazon in most countries or direct from the printer Feed-a-Read  (though the latter not for my latest book, The Cordwainer's Daughter). The Last Race is a very short but true account of an unlikely win at my very last rowing regatta which only appears on this website.