Old Bird. The Irrepressible Mrs Hewlett by Gail Hewlett

Old Bird. The Irrepressible Mrs Hewlett by Gail Hewlett

For a mother to teach her son to drive is perhaps not so unusual, but for her to teach him to fly? Given that the year was 1911, that was most likely a first. But Hilda B. Hewlett had already achieved a first in the world of aviation. Three months earlier she had become the first English woman to gain a pilot’s licence. How was it that the middle-aged wife of a well-known author came to be counted among the early aviation pioneers? A daughter of the vicar of an impoverished parish in South London, Hilda Beatrice Herbert was born in 1864 and married Maurice Hewlett, a barrister in Antiquarian Law, in 1888. He aspired to be a writer and Billy, as Hilda was affectionately known, encouraged him. When, ten years later, he published his best seller, a romantic historical novel, The Forest Lovers, the Hewletts began to enjoy unimaginable prosperity and Maurice was on his way to becoming a full-time writer and a member of the literary London scene. Billy, meanwhile, was acquiring a reputation for unconventionality. She already drove and maintained her own car, but it was whilst watching a new-fangled contraption of an aircraft rise and fly above a muddy field that Billy was fired with an all-consuming desire. To own and fly just such a machine she was prepared to endure cold and hunger, boredom and poverty. It was a venture that was to take her into aircraft manufacture throughout WWI and to settle her, eventually, as Old Bird – her grandchildren only ever knew her as Old Bird – in New Zealand.

Gail Hewlett was born in London in 1940. A would-be dancer, but eventual secretary, she worked for Nordiska Rör, Stockholm, The Cambridge University Typewriting Office, BBC Television and spent six years in Melbourne, where she became a film editor. She has lived in Harrow Weald for over thirty years, and is married with three adult daughters. Her husband is a grandson of Maurice and Hilda Hewlett.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781848763371
ISBN 10	1848763379
Title	Old Bird. The Irrepressible Mrs Hewlett
Author	Gail Hewlett
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Troubador Publishing
Year published	2010-05-03
Number of pages	312
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.