In May 1930, Amy Johnson, a typist from Hull, took off from Croydon Airport with a thermos flask and a packet of sandwiches to try to beat the world solo record to Australia. She arrived, sun-blistered and with grease on her face, after weeks of flying a second-hand, open-cockpit biplane with no radio communication and the most basic of maps. Her adventures - including a forced landing in the Iraqi desert and on a football pitch near Rangoon - inspired a world struggling with the devastating effects of the Depression, and a generation who felt cheated by the futility of the Great War. The Daily Mail transformed her into a celebrity whose career was followed by millions. But fame and the thrill of her flight to Australia made her restless and she took on record-breaking flights to Tokyo and Cape Town. She married Scottish playboy, Jim Mollison and together 'The Flying Sweethearts' broke records, mixed with the Mayfair Set, Amelia Earhart and Hollywood stars and dined with President Roosevelt. Amy became a glamorous fashion icon with a penchant for Chanel clothes and Cartier diamonds, and for painting her planes in her favourite colour of the moment.
As her tempestuous marriage crumbled she resumed her love affair with speed, taking up gliding and rally driving, and finding solace with a French millionaire. Her plane disappeared over the Thames Estuary during the Second World War, sparking rumours which are still being investigated today. Her body was never found.
- ISBN10 0297829823
- ISBN13 9780297829829
- Publish Date 1 July 2003
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 5 October 2005
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Orion Publishing Co
- Imprint Weidenfeld & Nicolson
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 400
- Language English