That Was The Week That Was 26-30 April
Zoom Calls and Bookcases – Aviation Novels
Perhaps the only good thing about Zoom calls is the tiny window they can give you of other people’s book cases. Is there anything more fascinating?
A lot of calls involving those in aviation seem to have model aeroplanes and engines in the background, and there are more than a few with very worthy arrays of textbooks covering various bits of aviation and a lot of studies of fascinating and well-told aspects of the industry. There are also books written by pilots. Soon, those shelves will no doubt also be adorned by a new book, Come Fly the World, by Julia Cooke about Pan-Am’s hostesses (no other term is appropriate) which in her review for the FT Peggy Hollinger, of our parish, calls a sexism-skewering history that shows that female flight attendants were ‘flag-flying diplomats’.
But, in the same pages of reviews, there was also a review of a novel linking an early aviatrix and an actor that is set to play her in a bio-pic. Maggie Shipstead’s Great Circle sounds much more suitable for these days of reflection and, assuming a summer holiday, some time on a beach. It goes without saying that I am yet to read it, but it joins a much shorter and much, much more interesting list of books about aviation – fiction. Novels are magical. You can finish a novel, not remember a word from it, and yet it will change your life.
So where does your aviation novel collection go? Let me give you a brief view of my curated for Zoom bookcase. All well-stocked libraries, in my opinion, must have the following six novels:
- Baltasar and Blimunda by Jose Saramago
- Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
- Illywacker, by Peter Carey
- Levels of Life by Julian Barnes
- Night Flight by Antoine Saint-Exupéry
- Trans-Atlantic by Colum McCann
What have I missed here? What else should be on this list?
Let me know…