Children's book about two RAF pilots who discover another world underground

March 6, 2006 12:37 AM

BookFilter - I'm trying to remember the title of a book involving two RAF pilots who bail out and end up exploring an underground world.

A memory of this book has just popped into my head, as they do. I remember reading it when I was about 10, so it's pre-1990 - but I think it may have been published earlier than that, perhaps in the 1940s or 1950s. The plot concerns two British RAF pilots in (I think) World War II. They bail out of their aircraft and land on a small sandbank in the middle of the sea - the twist being that the sandbank has a large hole in the middle, which they can't get out of. The hole has a kind of shelf in about 20 feet down (on which they've landed), but goes down much further. After much deliberation about how they're going to get out, they decide to use their open parachutes to go further down the hole. They find a Jules Verne-style "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" world down there. Unfortunately, I can't remember any details of what they did find.

Have I made this up? Google hasn't helped but I have very strong memories of the beginning of the book. I think it may have been pitched at children, in a "Boy's Own Adventure" style way, rather than being an adult book.

posted by greycap to media & arts (6 comments total)

Was it one of the Biggles books?
posted by ciaron at 3:02 AM on March 6, 2006

This sounded so familiar, I couldn't give up! I have this book somewhere at home:
The Perilous Descent by Bruce Carter. Some more info.
posted by ciaron at 3:16 AM on March 6, 2006

It is "The Perilous Descent" by Bruce Carter. They land on a sand bank and go down into a tunnel and come out in.....I aint going to spoil it. You see it arround in 2nd hand shops or have a look on Amazon*.

(* that might be a clue)
posted by priorpark17 at 3:20 AM on March 6, 2006

That's it! I recognise the cover. Thank you so much, I am going to have to find a copy of this. And thanks for not spoiling it...
posted by greycap at 3:42 AM on March 6, 2006

I am going to have to find a copy of this

Abe?
posted by ed\26h at 5:55 AM on March 6, 2006

I met "Bruce Carter" at a Puffin Club meeting in London sometime in the mid-70s, and he was charming. Subsequently I became a big fan. His other works are less science-fictiony but equally memorable: Four Wheel Drift (aka Speed Six) awoke in me an interest in classic cars that persists to this day.
posted by Hogshead at 8:12 PM on March 6, 2006