Two former newspaper editors have teamed up to write the biography of a legendary glider pilot.
Barrie Williams was editor of the Nottingham Evening Post and Richard Harris was his news editor and later assistant editor in the late 1980s.
Williams later went on to become editor of the Western Morning News in Plymouth while Harris became editor of the evening News & Star and Cumberland News in Carlisle, though both kept in touch.
Despite living 400 miles, 25 years after last working together the pair have teamed up to write “Goodhart: The Story of an Exceptional Man”, which has just been published by Woodfield Publishing.
It tells the story of the late Rear Admiral Hilary Charles Nicholas Goodhart, known as Nick Goodhart, who both Williams and Harris describe as the most extraordinary man they ever met.
“I've met many exceptional people in my time – but none of them has come anywhere near being as exceptional as Nicholas Goodhart,” said Harris.
“War hero, test pilot, admiral, inventor, world-renowned glider pilot, businessman, aircraft designer, pioneer of manpowered flight . . . Most men would be happy to excel in just one of those spheres, but he excelled in all of them!”
As a glider pilot Goodhart flew higher, further and faster than any Briton before him (one of his records still stands to this day).
It was Williams who Nicholas asked to write his biography, and all was going well until he came to the chapters that documented his incredible achievements as a glider pilot.
“Nicholas sat down to tell me all about it and I didn't have a clue what he was talking about!” said Williams.
“I decided I needed some assistance . . . from someone who could write and, just as importantly, from someone who understood gliding.
“The only person I knew who fitted both bills was Richard, because he’s done a bit of gliding himself.”
“Goodhart” by Richard Harris & Barrie Williams is available from Woodfield Publishing (https://www.woodfieldpublishing.co.uk) £15 paperback, £25 hardback
There's more information is on Harris’s website https://www.richardharrisnews.co.uk
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