Empire of the Clouds by James Hamilton-Paterson
In 1945, Britain was the world's leading designer and builder of aircraft - a world-class achievement that was not mere rhetoric. And what aircraft they were. The sleek Comet, the first jet airliner. The awesome delta-winged Vulcan, and intercontinental bomber that could be thrown about the sky like a fighter. The Hawker Hunter, the most beautiful fighter-jet ever built and the Lightning, which could zoom ten miles above the clouds in a couple of minutes and whose pilots rated flying it as better than sex. Just what was it like to be alive in that marvellous post-war moment when innovative new British aircraft made their debut, and pilots were the rock stars of the age? James Hamilton-Paterson captures that season of glory in a compelling book that fuses his own memories of being a schoolboy plane spotter with a ruefully realistic history of British decline - its loss of self confidence and power. It is the story of great and charismatic machines and the men who flew them: heroes such as Bill Waterton, Neville Duke, John Derry and Bill Beaumont who took inconceivable risks, so that we could fly without a second thought.
James Hamilton-Paterson is the author of Gerontius, winner of the Whitbread Prize; Seven-Tenths: The Sea and its Thresholds; Playing with Water; and most recently, of the wild comic trilogy Cooking with Fernet Branca, Amazing Disgrace and Rancid Pansies.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780571272181 |
| ISBN 10 | 0571272185 |
| Title | Empire of the Clouds |
| Author | James Hamilton-Paterson |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Faber & Faber |
| Year published | 2010-10-07 |
| Number of pages | 288 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |