Ralph Barker was a respected author and historian. After serving with the RAF in WW2 and later at the Air Historical Branch, he retired to write fulltime in 1961. Over more than fifty years he penned twenty eight volumes. Books such as Strike Hard, Strike Sure (1963, 1990), The Blockade Busters (1976, 2005) and Men of the Bombers (2005) established him as an outstanding narrator of tales of human courage. Bill Lancaster: The Final Verdict was first published in 1969(Harrap) as Verdict on a Lost Flyer.