Gemini To Joburg: The True Story Of A Flight Over Africa
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Very good
Pages: Tanning and foxing
High above the African continent, with nothing but clouds below and sky above, Cecil Lewis charts one of aviation's most daring personal odysseys in Gemini to Joburg: The True Story of a Flight Over Africa. A legendary figure of early aviation — RFC pilot, BBC co-founder, and author of the classic Sagittarius Rising — Lewis here chronicles his remarkable solo flight in a twin-engined Gemini aircraft from England to Johannesburg, navigating the vast and unpredictable terrain of Africa with equal measures of technical skill and sheer audacity. The narrative captures every nerve-wracking mechanical challenge, every breathtaking aerial vista, and every colourful encounter on the ground with the intimacy of a personal journal and the pace of a thriller. Beyond the mechanics of flight, Gemini to Joburg presents a vivid portrait of a mid-twentieth-century Africa seen from the cockpit — a continent in transition, sprawling and magnificent, rendered through Lewis's characteristically elegant and reflective prose. His writing carries the rare authority of a man who has lived as fully in the air as on the ground, lending this account a philosophical depth that elevates it well above a simple travelogue. For readers drawn to adventure, aviation history, or the literature of exploration, this is an irresistible dispatch from the golden age of private flight — one that leaves you wondering what other horizons Lewis might yet conquer.
Author: Cecil Lewis
Format: Hardback
Published: 1984, Viking.
Genre: Travel & exploration
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Very good
Pages: Tanning and foxing
High above the African continent, with nothing but clouds below and sky above, Cecil Lewis charts one of aviation's most daring personal odysseys in Gemini to Joburg: The True Story of a Flight Over Africa. A legendary figure of early aviation — RFC pilot, BBC co-founder, and author of the classic Sagittarius Rising — Lewis here chronicles his remarkable solo flight in a twin-engined Gemini aircraft from England to Johannesburg, navigating the vast and unpredictable terrain of Africa with equal measures of technical skill and sheer audacity. The narrative captures every nerve-wracking mechanical challenge, every breathtaking aerial vista, and every colourful encounter on the ground with the intimacy of a personal journal and the pace of a thriller. Beyond the mechanics of flight, Gemini to Joburg presents a vivid portrait of a mid-twentieth-century Africa seen from the cockpit — a continent in transition, sprawling and magnificent, rendered through Lewis's characteristically elegant and reflective prose. His writing carries the rare authority of a man who has lived as fully in the air as on the ground, lending this account a philosophical depth that elevates it well above a simple travelogue. For readers drawn to adventure, aviation history, or the literature of exploration, this is an irresistible dispatch from the golden age of private flight — one that leaves you wondering what other horizons Lewis might yet conquer.