"On the way back to the Front I ran over a general." With this opening line you know that Bartholomew Bandy is back, with a vengeance. It may be 1918 and the war may be grinding on, but Bandy will make a difference. Now he's in charge of his own squadron of Sopwith Dolphins, but although the hated Hun is pressing fiercely, Bandy's prime enemy, as usual, is his own Top Brass.
Unable to cope with him, the military commanders post him to Russia, where the Western powers are intervening in the Civil War. Bandy has an exciting spell with the Allied forces in Russia, fighting Bolsheviks,...

It's 1924, and Bandy is making a solo flight across the Atlantic in the Gander, a seaplane of his own design. Not for fame though - he's fleeing from arrest for train robbery, from his job as Minister of Defence, and from his would-be assassin and friend George Garanine. From Iceland, to Iraq, to St. Pancreas Hospital in London, Bandy's career has never been more complicated, or his luck more of a roller coaster. When he finds new employment as Deputy Supreme Being of a mercenary air force, Bandy begins to feel that the whole British Empire has a grudge against him. But at least the pay is...

The Great War may be finished, but Bartholomew Bandy isnt.

After not quite succeeding in defeating communism in Russia, hes returning to the New World when he meets shy, awkward Cissie Chaffington, whose first glimmerings of interest in aviation appear when she sends a cooked duck soaring through the ships first-class dining room.

More than just terminal embarrassment stands in the way of their happiness, however. Her father, for example, takes a violent dislike to Bandy - even before Bandy blows up Cyril Chaffingtons hotel. And then who should turn up but the diminutive Dasha, the former...