Bryan Cox's fourth book, Cats Have Only Nine Lives, is the story of his flying career over fifty years, and as the subtitle of the book proclaims, it is certainly a collection of "Memorable Moments In The Air 1943 - 1993".

Published in November 2004, Bryan revisits his well known career in the wartime Royal New Zealand Air Force, which he first detailed in his 1987 book "Too Young To Die". However this is an all new text, completely rewritten with added memories and details of those turbulent years when he trained as a fighter pilot in New Zealand and then completed four tours with fighter squadrons in the Pacific war.

I have long been a great fan of "Too Young To Die", a book which has often been credited by those in the know as the best book written by a Pacific fighter pilot of any country. I discovered the book in 1991 when I lived at RNZAF Base Wigram, and upon reading it, I found my interest in the history of the RNZAF change from a general knowledge of what our Air Force did as a whole during the war, to becoming aware of the personal side of the air war. It was this book that really kindled my quest for more of the same, and I began reading more personal biographies of wartime pilots and groundcrew as a consequence. This in turn has lead to my desire to learn and record more of those personal stories, because each and every one is as interesting and valuable as the last. So I can say it was Bryan's book "Too Young To Die" that set me on the path that has resulted in this website project.

And in a roundabout way, that is very fitting, because he, like me, was born and grew up in Cambridge. He left the town in 1936 to move to nearby Te Rapa, but he still has friends, connections and happy memories of Cambridge.

I found other personal points of reference in his book too. The telling of his time at RNZAF Station Ardmore fascinated me, because my grandparents had lived on a farm at the end of the airstrip there during the war, and certain events he told about I'd heard from Nana and Dad over the years.

The book became a best seller, and is still popular with readers today. He followed it up in 1997 with a sequel, "Pacific Scrapbook". This was a different format, larger pages and more photos, and told a more general story of the RNZAF's Pacific war, with his own involvement woven through. Again, it was a terrific book with lots of important information recorded.

Now Bryan has delved into his memories and photo albums again to produce a third outstanding account of his experiences in the air. As well as rewriting that part of his life where he flew for King and Country, this book takes things further and records Bryan's interesting postwar experiences.

After the war Bryan was to become one of New Zealand's best known flying instructors, and he spent many years as Chief Instructor at Ardmore, now a popular civil aerodrome and no longer the Corsair base he once inhabited in uniform.

Following the war's end Bryan had served in J Force, with No. 14 Squadron RNZAF occupying the defeated country of Japan. He served there till 1947. In his previous books this is where the story had ended. However in this new book, Cats Have Only Nine Lives, the story picks up again in 1956 when he decided to get back involved with aviation again, despite the fears of his wife and parents.

This new interest came about through first becoming an Air Traffic Controller, and then moving into instruction with various flying schools. In his usual way Bryan tells his wonderful tales with a mix of nostalgia and detail. Throughout the book, like his previous tomes, Bryan skillfully explains the various technical natures of aviation in such easy terms that any reader can quickly grasp.

The book has many black and white photos, and a good number of coloured snaps too from the more recent decades. He breaks the book down nicely into sections with subtitles, so almost like each separate tale or memory becomes an article on its own. But collected together they make an easily read and very enjoyable book, with the adventure and nostalgia of days gone by in the air, smattered with some tragedy and a fair bit of humour.

To anyone who has not yet had the opportunity to read Bryan's previous three books (he also wrote the very popular book A New Zealand Guide To Flight Training), and you have an interest in either the wartime RNZAF or civil aviation, or both, I insist you should read this. You will not be sorry. If you have read, and perhaps own, Too Young To Die and Pacific Scrapbook then this book is the perfect accompaniment. I have all three books (now all signed by the man himself too I must add, thanks Bryan) and I would not give up any one of them.

The book is in the same large format as Pacific Scrapbook, and features 189 packed pages. The foreword is by Chris Rudge, himself a noted historian and writer of excellent books on New Zealand's aviation past. The ISBN number is 0-476-00879-4

This book has been produced in limited numbers, with each edition being hand numbered. It is available directly from the author. You can write to him at:

Mr Bryan Cox, 17 Highcroft Place, Welcome Bay, Tauranga
Telephone: 07 544 0049 (or international dial 64 7 544 0049)
Or you can send Bryan a Fax on: 07 544 0057 (international dial 64 7 544 0057)
Bryan's email is bryanBcox@in2net.co.nz

The price is $30.00 including Post & Packaging within New Zealand per book