An introduction to Mosquito Month from Al Murray

How very British. And you know exactly what I mean by that.

To officially open Mosquito Month on Hush-Kit, we hand you over to the Pub Warlord himself, historian, comedian and drummer, Al Murray.

“I am not a fan of overpraise, hype, too much buzz. Something in it makes me baulk, refuse the hurdle. Whole bands’ output that I might otherwise love is ignored if there’s just too much talk about them. Similarly, I find it impossible to credit notions of national characteristics in engineering with too much importance. People and governments, rather than Britishness, are what gave birth to, say, the Spitfire – and where did the wing come from, anyway? Engineering problems in aircraft have a universal quality, bound by physics and material constraints.

However, it seems to me, despite my better judgement, that there is something very British (whatever you or I mean by that, but I think this makes my case) in the interaction between culture, engineering, human beings, and government in what can best be called the manifestation of the de Havilland Mosquito, the greatest warplane of all time. A family firm, fatally wedded to the dangers of its vocation, designing an aircraft in spite of the specification laid down, from materials that were not scarce in a time of material constraint, that outperformed everything, that adapted to every role thrown at it: the world-beating Wooden Wonder. And a Wonder that, like the thoroughbred English stallion it was, literally wilted in the Burmese climate.”

Mosquito month has just taken off on Hush-Kit! Prepare for heavy Mosquito action this July on Hush-Kit.

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