Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot by
April 2018
If you fly a lot, if you like to fly, if you’re interested in flying, or if you’re just interested in travel and geography and humanity and outstanding writing, this book is for you. It’s a poetic and fascinating account of the life of a pilot and the world above the clouds, of what it feels like to fly the great feat of engineering that is the Boeing 747, of human encounters and cultural encounters, of jet lag and the lonely beauty of the Earth at night. At times I had a huge smile on my face while reading this, at times I had tears in my eyes. I highlighted passage after passage of beautiful writing, of funny and painful and poignant truths about life above our planet and on it. I started this book on a flight from London to Hong Kong, continued reading it on flights to and from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, and finished reading it on a flight from Poland back to London. It was perfect.