![\"Spitfire](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SX1SDJT5262BJEEEBDFG.jpg\")
Spitfire Girls. Picture: Mark Senior<\/p>\nInspired by the extraordinary true stories of the female pilots who flew military aircraft during World War II, Spitfire Girls is back on tour and landing next week at The Arts Theatre Cambridge.<\/p>\n
The play, which premiered with a UK tour last year, is set on New Year\u2019s Eve 1959 and is based on the experiences of wartime pilots such as Jackie Moggridge, Joy Lofthouse and Mary Ellis.<\/p>\n
Spitfire Girls. Picture: Mark Senior<\/p>\n
Katherine Senior plays \u201cBett\u201d, an amalgamation of a number of real-life female pilots who who flew Spitfires and bombers for the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) during the war.<\/p>\n
Katherine also wrote the play and says with a laugh: \u201cI\u2019m an actor so I thought I\u2019d write myself a part!\u201d<\/p>\n
South African-born Jackie Moggridge, who was 18 when she arrived in England with dreams of becoming a pilot, was also the first woman in SA to do parachute jump and the first female airline captain to ferry passengers.<\/p>\n
In 1940, she joined the ATA, where her job was to deliver aircraft from factories and air bases, or take them to be repaired for use on the front line, often in a dangerous and damaged state.<\/p>\n
Out of the 168 women who served in the ATA, flying around 147 different types of aircraft, 16 died.<\/p>\n
Following Jackie\u2019s death at the age of 81 in 2004, her ashes were scattered over Dunkeswell Airfield in Devon, from a Spitfire. Her daughter says that her mother flew 1,438 planes during the war.<\/p>\n
![\"Spitfire](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/V4YXLKJ32U6DKPU5X6MM.jpg\")
Spitfire Girls. Picture: Mark Senior![\"Spitfire](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DZ2Y5CDZ7RW5C501FLAB.jpg\")
Spitfire Girls. Picture: Mark Senior<\/p>\n
Katherine says she first became aware of the female ATA pilots of the Second World War in 2016 after listening to a story on the radio.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never knew women flew aeroplanes in the Second World War,\u201d she admits.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo then I started digging around, and then a lady who has a blog down here on The Solent sent me the contact of Mary Ellis, who was an ATA pilot, and Joy Lofthouse, who was another one, and then also Candy [Adkins] who is the daughter of Jackie Moggridge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Katherine\u2019s first stop on her writing journey for Spitfire Girls was Taunton in 2016, where she met Candy face to face.<\/p>\n
Describing her as \u201cso welcoming and generous, sharing all her mum\u2019s extensive archive with me over a delicious bowl of soup\u201d, Katherine learned that Jackie even used to write poems.<\/p>\n
![\"Spitfire](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JEH7ZZ5S5RJD6OW724D0.jpg\")
Spitfire Girls. Picture: Mark Senior![\"Spitfire](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AF1FS7YX44GQIVZRRNG4.jpg\")
Spitfire Girls. Picture: Mark Senior<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I met Mary [Ellis] in 2017 on the Isle of Wight,\u201d recalls Katherine, who also watched documentaries on the ATA and read books and articles on the subject as part of her research.<\/p>\n
\u201cPauline Gower [1910-1947] was tasked with the job of gathering the first eight female pilots to join the ATA and contributed to what was going to be an extraordinary feat for this civilian organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n
She adds: \u201cI have met many people over the years connected with the ATA, including the Heritage museum in Maidenhead and family and friends of the pilots, all of whom have been so supportive of the project.\u201d<\/p>\n
Katherine says it was a \u201cprivilege and honour\u201d to meet Mary Ellis, and reveals that the play took a while to get off the ground partly because she had to make sure all of the information in it was correct.<\/p>\n
She has also given birth to three children since 2016, which understandably has also taken up a lot of her time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think obviously because it\u2019s historical\u2026 there\u2019s so many facts and figures,\u201d she notes, \u201cand there\u2019s not just the facts around the ATA and at what point in the war they came into being and everything around that organisation, there\u2019s also the flying \u2013 I had to get all of that right, all the aviation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking at the right dials and it\u2019s the right aircraft, it\u2019s the right Mark of Spitfire and all that. So people started putting me in touch with other people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was one chap that I was put in touch with and he\u2019s been my sort of \u2018go to\u2019 for everything there is to know about the ATA, but also he\u2019s an ex-pilot.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Spitfire](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/30DMQMM7L9S70LDDJXJ0.jpg\")
Spitfire Girls. Picture: Mark Senior![\"Actress](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Q46Z63C05IVCAXPM5D7Y.jpg\")
Actress and playwright Katherine Senior. Picture: Tilted Wig<\/p>\n
Once she had gathered all of the knowledge and information, Katherine says that the actual play itself took her \u201cabout a year to write\u201d.<\/p>\n
She says the female pilots in Spitfire Girls are made-up characters, although Jackie Moggridge and Mary Ellis are referenced.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe women in the play are fictional, but they\u2019re like a collective representation of the pilots,\u201d explains Katherine, who believes that one female ATA pilot \u2013 a lady in Canada (the ATA was made up of people from all over the world) \u2013 may still be alive.<\/p>\n
Katherine job-shares the role of Bett with Katriona Brown, which allows her to spend more time with her children.<\/p>\n
She will be performing on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the Arts Theatre.<\/p>\n