IT IS NOW OVER A DECADE SINCE the author’s definitive work of the same title was first published and over the intervening period, through further dedicated research and new information coming to light as a result of that edition, the author has now published a second edition.
The first edition was, in my view a superb work which detailed the development of airmail routes across the Middle East after the First World War. It was very detailed with many full colour illustrations. This second edition is no less impressive and boasts an additional 48 pages, not including the index pages. Containing over 600 illustrations and tables including covers, photographs, ephemera, tables etc.
As many will recognise, the Middle East played a key strategic role in the early growth of air transport, especially as demand increased for faster mail routes linking Europe with the Middle East, India, and beyond. Now this 2025, second edition augments the information found in the 2015 edition, including the addition of new covers not previously seen and which are new to the census of covers of the 1918 to 1920 pioneer flights. As noted by the author, significant additions have been made to almost all chapters. The chapter on the pioneer flights across the Middle East after 1922 which, in the first edition had concentrated particularly on significant flights (mainly British and Australian). This has now been considerably expanded to include French and other pioneers. The chapters on airmails flown by airlines other than Imperial Airways (KLM, French airlines, Junkers Persien) have many additions.
The first edition drew on research from the Royal Mail Archive, the UK National Archives, along with other sources. Using that research, augmented by new information coming to light, means that for me this revised work presents additional previously unpublished material making it a must have edition for the enthusiastic aerophilatelist.
Certainly, if you have the 2015 edition already it is worth keeping as a resource, but I would still highly recommend the new edition to use as a first point of reference. If you didn’t manage to get the first edition, then look no further, contact the author for your copy before they all go!
