I am a weatherman. I have been all my life...If I think of what I have done, it is the taste of the wind or a vision of clouds fit for the hammer of God, which drove me to it. There is no friend like the weather, no one so sure, so true, so constantly fickle.' A mystery, a confession, an enquiry, a journey. In the Kingdom of Air is a most remarkable novel, embracing flying boats on the Medway, the great October storm of '87 the stories of Mr Muchmore, Mrs Brigg's Bag, and stories after stories of deception and self-deception. This is a brilliant debut.