For quite a few years, Simon Parry and Mark Postlethwaite have been building up a huge library of original WWII aviation photos, partly as a hobby but mainly to help provide photos for the books that they publish. With over 30,000 now in the collection, they realised that they had more than enough to produce a series of photo books on individual aircraft types and sub-types. They set out to make the series as ideally suited to modellers and artists as possible, so large photos, using A4 landscape format, and minimal text except for extended captions. Effectively their aim is to produce a 21st Century version of the Profile Publications series of books from the 1960s, using the latest technology to reproduce their wartime photos to the highest standard possible.

This series is unique in that it will be able to provide large format ORIGINAL photos up to full A4 landscape format width, which is at least 50% larger than any standard book can deliver. Combined with the specialist knowledge of a team of historians and contributors, each book should provide unbeatable and accurate references for any modelling or painting project.

“When we first decided to do the Beaufighter in this series, it was clear that it would take at least two volumes to do the type justice. The big question was, how to split them? Night fighters/Day fighters? Fighter Command/Coastal Command? In the end, we opted to group the photos by sub type, so in this volume you have all the Mk Is and Mk IIs and the Mk VIf. The Mk VIC will appear in the next volume/s along with the Mk X and later Mks.

As usual in this series, we devote most of the space to high-res original wartime photos, which we examine very closely to pick out details that have been hiding in plain sight for over 70 years.”