At dawn on 2 September 1942, a Hudson aircraft lifted into the pale Icelandic sky, and was never seen again. On board was Flight Lieutenant Alfred ‘Ginge’ Culver DFM, just twenty-five years old, together with three fellow airmen of Coastal Command’s No. 269 Squadron. With them flew Eric Ravilious, the brilliant war artist whose luminous watercolours had captured the uneasy stillness of Britain at war. Within hours, all were gone.

What happened in those final moments remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Second World War. Were they victims of a German U-boat or battleship? Did ice and mechanical failure bring them down? Or were they struck by a Luftwaffe reconnaissance plane over the Atlantic?

For decades, questions haunted the families left behind. Carol Lockwood was only eight weeks old when her father, ‘Ginge’ Culver, disappeared. Anne Ullman was six months old when she waved her father Ravilious goodbye for the last time. Both daughters grew up in the long shadow of loss, their lives intertwined by tragedy.

In Love as Strong as Death, Melody Foreman uncovers the story of two remarkable men – one a romantic, book-loving pilot, the other a visionary artist – whose fates were sealed on that September morning. At once an intimate family history and a moving act of remembrance, this book honours their courage, celebrates their art and service, and pays tribute to a generation of children who never knew their fathers.