What a joy when award-winning historical author Jessie Childs (pictured) contacted me via this website.
She found ‘Blighty Thank God’, published one year ago, when delving into the fascinating life of her diplomat grandfather, Stephen Childs (left). Usually she is researching archives and sources from the 16th and 17th Centuries.
But my father’s diary entries and the episode ‘Death in Winter’ stood out to her..
What piqued her interest was mention of Stephen and the plane crash that killed him.
Jessie’s late grandmother had always thought there was something suspicious about the cause of the tragedy. On board the fateful flight that took off from the Iranian capital Tehran in January, 1943 were RAF crew, 4 senior Iranian military and 3 British diplomats – one of whom was a British spy.
And according to my father, the young Shah of Iran (pictured left) was also rumoured to be on board, something Jessie had been unaware of.
You can listen to my interview with Jessie and her view of the cause of the crash together with the complicated affairs of one passenger in the extra episode I’ve added to the series – ‘Sex, Spies and Lies’.
The full interview with her is available too.
You can see more about Jessie at her website, https://jessiechilds.co.uk/