Amy Johnson
Queen of the Air
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 inspired a world struggling with the devastating effects of the Depression and made her into a celebrity overnight.
She married Scottish playboy Jim Mollison, and together “The Flying Sweethearts” broke records, mixed with the Mayfair Set, Amelia Earhart and Hollywood stars. But her tempestuous marriage was soon to crumble and 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.
Praise
“This diligent, vivid and stirring biography . . . an exceptionally thorough biography, but one that wears its research lightly, never allowing it to choke up the narrative. Her book is perceptive without being over-analytical; colourful without being over-egged and full of admiration for its subject without ever toppling into over-empathy. I was gripped, exhilarated and moved by it,” Sunday Telegraph
“Midge Gillies is a superb biographer, and this book is well worth reading for the Australia flight alone, which Gillies pulls off with intense narrative panache . . . the beauty of this biography is that she [Amy] remains a raw and dangerous subject to encounter at first hand,” Scotland on Sunday.
“In Midge Gillies, Amy Johnson has found her ideal biographer . . . admiring, witty and humane . . a riveting slice of social history,” Mail on Sunday.
“A first rate story about a remarkable woman,” New Statesman.
“Fascinating and well researched . . .Gillies gives the flight to Australia a tremendous, knuckle-whitening tension . . .” Independent on Sunday
“compelling portrait,” Scotsman
“Her warm and authoritative biography,” Literary Review
