May, 1940. Second World War. Three home-based RAF airmen are adrift. Shot down into the dark. Ditched in water off France.
No radio contact, Radar not yet operational so only hope of rescue is two carrier pigeons issued for emergency use. Fly home, back to base, Gert and Daisy, we need help!
Pigeons, however well trained, can have minds of their own. Fly birds! Buzz off!
If and when they do, you wait. But remain tongue-tied by tradition and education. You can only think, feel and speak outside yourself with care; Battle of Britain eloquence is yet to relieve stiff upper lips with fly-away moustaches.
Be with these three young men. Will you live or die, lost for words, lost at sea?
ROBIN CHAPMAN is an award-winning novelist, playwright and screenwriter. Throwing Pigeons out of Aeroplanes is his eleventh novel.