John Harris’s The Mercenaries

Weirdly I was at one of those boutique hotels the other week where they think it chic to give you the bill inside an old (ish) book – it’s a bit old hat and twee – every third rate tea shop in every seaside town does it now – but never mind. I happened to get my bill inside a copy of The Mercenaries, a long forgotten read.

British author John Harris (aka Mark Hebden) wrote The Mercenaries in 1969 (it was published in the US as The Jade Wind). It concerns China and the fledgling days of China’s air force in the 1920s. Here’s the jacket blurb – Ira Penaluna (Harris wrote a series of books with this character), First World War pilot, sees his airline go bankrupt in Africa and grabs at the chance to instruct pilots in China. But Ira hasn’t reckoned on the beat-up, burnt-out wrecks he is expected to teach his students in, or on the fact that his pupils speak no English. Though aided and abetted by an enthusiastic assistant, an irresponsible Fagan and his brooding American girlfriend Ellie, Ira finds himself playing a deadly game, becoming embroiled in China’s civil war. The four are forced to flee but the only way out is in a struggling pile of junk flown precariously towards safety. Will they make it?

Harris was one of those authors who set adventure books in all sorts of exotic locales – Africa etc etc. He did a few books in and around China – China Seas is a pretty good pulp pirates novel