THE PILOT'S DAUGHTER
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
When I was five years old, Dad would sometimes take me along on flights because he was a decorated war hero in Queen Elizabeth's Royal Air Force. He was a brilliant flight commander and a squadron leader. He was one of the best RAF pilots, so he was also secretly chosen for special missions. Before one of those flights, Sir Winston Churchill asked my father if I could be their air stewardess on a flight to Paris and Le Bourget Airport. I did not know it was for the peace talks for the end of World War II and didn't care because I was young and more interested in being with my dad.
Sir Winston Churchill thought I was quite a character because of a funny incident that had happened some days earlier, so that is why he asked my dad to bring me along as a little stewardess. One day the telephone rang and I picked up the phone. A man’s voice asked,” Little girl, may I speak with Captain John Hankins?”
“No, you can't. He’ s in the bathroom,” I replied.
“Well, this is very important. Can you knock on the door and ask him to come out?”
“No," I replied matter-of-factly.
“Why not?”the man inquired.
“He will be in there all day!”I retorted.
“Oh? What does he do in there all day?”
“Oh, “I replied. Everything!”
“This is a very important call, “said the man. “Can you write down my name?”
I was most indignant. “Of course, I can. I go to school.” (In England, during the war, the criteria for going to school was if you could read, you could go to school. I learned to read by age 3 ½ because I was frightened to stay home being alone with the bombs dropping and ack-ack guns going off. So, my father taught me to read the newspaper and by the time I was 3 ½, I was good enough to go to school!)
“Can you write down my name?” questioned the man again. He spelled out each letter separately. W-I-N-S-T-O-N, then C-H-U-R-C-H-I-L-L. “Can you read that back to me?”
I read his name back to him and he also gave me his telephone number, which I repeated back to him. I promised the man that I would give my dad the note whenever he got out of the bathroom.
Dad came out of the bathroom about thirty minutes later. He read the note, called the special man, then rushed into his bedroom and got his uniform on. Later, my dad arrived at the underground railway station (or tube) near Paddington Railway Station. He entered a special secret door for only generals, admirals, and other important people. They called it the war room. Immediately, Sir Winston Churchill stood up and said loudly, “Captain! You made it! I heard that you spent all day in the bathroom doing everything. How could you get out so early?” My dad was so embarrassed as everyone laughed like crazy. Needless to say, I was never allowed to speak on the telephone again after that!
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
Imagine being the 5-year old informal air stewardess as Phillipa’s dad, Captain John Hankins, flies four world leaders to the Paris Peace Talks. After WW II, people in London were suffering. Captain Hankins flew his family to Nairobi,Africa where they built a farm near the Serengetti. Even though he was then flying for British Overseas Airways, he established a working farm. Young Phillipa and her family survived attacks from the Mau Mau, as well as columns of merciless fireants, man-eating tigers, poisonous pythons, debilitating diseases, and a culture totally foreign to a proper little English girl. After escaping from the Mau Mau in a tribal war known around the world, Phillipa and her family returned to London, and begins ballet school against the backdrop of a father who left the family to be the chief pilot for the President of Mexico and her severely depressed mother who hated her for not being a boy so she could have inherited English lands. Phillipa had some wonderful encounters with Queen Elizabeth II and finally was able to go to America as an au pair. The final chapters of the book highlight her having a family in California, owning her own ballet school, escaping from a dodgy first husband, and traveling to Spain and New Zealand to tend to each dying parent. Finally Phillipa ended up in Orlando, Florida armed with a new hope for a successful life.
About the Author
Phillipa Annesley Scrivens, born in London, England, was a delightful English lady who lived through some of the world’s biggest events. A swami in London once told her that she must write her life story and it would be very popular. Phillipa told him that she hated to write essays, so it would never happen. Now, decades later, she has relayed her story through many months of recalling memories through her friend, Professor Karen Jorgensen of Orlando, Florida who recorded hours and hours of their conversations. Every event detailed in this book is true. It is a labor of love for her family and friends to complete this promised project.
Karen Lox Jorgensen, originally from Roanoke, Virginia, resides in Orlando, Florida. For the last 24 years, she continues to be an Associate Professor of English at Valencia College in Orlando, as well as an award-winning realtor. Jorgensen has written four other novels in the last three years including Escape from the Union School, a semi-autobiographical novel about her first job out of college as the only white teacher in an all-black union school in eastern North Carolina and escaping from certain death by a mob the morning after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Other non-fiction novels she has written include a private genealogy book for a wealthy family in the Midwest, the myriad adventures of a world traveler, and a novel about the surviving family of a fireman who died in one of the Twin Towers in New York City on September 11, 2001. Ms. Jorgensen acknowledged that she really enjoyed the years she spent with Phillipa not only writing down her stories, but oftentimes picking her up and going for vanilla ice cream after dinner. Phillipa was always happy and talkative as she reminisced about her adult children, her grandchildren, and how she was grateful to have met the challenges of life with faith and determination. She never gave up!