Captain De Havilland's Moth

The first flight of Captain de Havilland's Moth, hardly six years after the Great War, took place at a time when the conquest of the air was at last being turned to peaceful pursuits. And it was the DH60 Moth, more than any other type, 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 early enthusiasts included Philip Sassoon, one of the richest commoners in the land, Lady Bailey who flew her Moth 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 in his 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 a scarcely believable 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.