A nostalgic celebration of the golden age of aviation
The first flight of the DH60 Moth marked the beginning of a craze for flying that gripped a war-weary world for more than a decade. The most successful aircraft of its era, it was the one in which people had the greatest adventures. And it was the Moth which showed that flying was safe, practical and, potentially, open to all.
True, many early Mothists were uber-privileged. The Prince of Wales had one, as did his brother, the Duke of Gloucester. Beryl Markham, who had affairs with both, learned to fly in a Moth. Other enthusiasts included Philip Sassoon, one of the richest commoners in the land, Lady Bailey who flew hers to Cape Town and back, Viscount de Sibour who flew his wife round the world in one and the future traitor, Colonel the Master of Semphill.
But Laura Ingalls, who did 980 successive loops in hers, Aspy Engineer, the Indian schoolboy who won the Aga Khan Trophy and Amy Johnson, the typist from Hull who flew hers to Australia showed that, to be a pilot, you didn't need to be a superhero or super wealthy. Just a little mad, perhaps.
In this story, as entertaining as it is extraordinary, the reader is introduced to an astonishing cast of characters whose courage, determination and epic eccentricity is shown in the light of what it is actually like to fly these remarkable aeroplanes.
