Terence Spencer was born on 8 March 1918 during a Zeppelin raid in Bedford, England, the son of an engineering company owner.
Spencer transferred to the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) and was commissioned on 10 October 1941 (RAF No.
41 Squadron's advance party to Diest, arriving in Belgium almost a month ahead of the rest of the unit.
Just over a month later, when the camp's main gate was left open, he escaped by bicycle, and subsequently motorcycle, with another ex-No.
The citation for his DFC on 22 June 1945 read: This officer's keenness for air operations has won great praise.
He has completed a very large number of sorties and has invariably attacked his targets with great courage and determination thereby achieving much success.
He has been responsible for the destruction of one enemy, aircraft and a good number of mechanical vehicles.In February 1946, after being demobilised, Spencer was asked by the Percival Aircraft Company to ferry solo a Percival Proctor, a small single-engine plane, without radio, dinghy or emergency supplies, on an 8,000 miles (13,000 km) flight to South Africa.
In 1952, he started shooting for Life magazine, covering war stories in African continent, including Sharpville and the Congo Crisis, many of the independence struggles in emerging African nations, the horrors of apartheid, Nelson Mandela on the run and Jomo Kenyatta in detention.
While there, at the request of his daughter Cara, Spencer followed the (at the time largely unknown) band The Beatles, and documented them for several months and shooting more than 5,000 pictures.
His subjects included celebrities such as Freddie Mercury, Bob Dylan, Ava Gardner, Katharine Hepburn, Princess Grace of Monaco, Richard Branson, and John Cleese.
The book's (re-)release coincided with the launch of a website of Spencer's archive of photographs taken whilst working for Life, Time and People magazines.