"Absolute Altitude" captures the high romance of aviation. Martin Buckley grew up near Farnborough, the heart of English aviation, and was always fascinated by flight. Three years ago he acquired a pilot's licence and set off to hitch-hike by plane around the world. The result is a stylish and often hilarious travel book, offering intimate insights into the thrills and perils of the pilot's seat - from a UN Cessna flying aid into a war zone, to aerobatics in a jet fighter, from chasing goats through NZ snowy mountains by helicopter, to touching the edge of the stratosphere in a Learjet - and weaving a panorama of aviation history through the narrative. "Buckley is a born storyteller" - "Observer". "His stories are extraordinary - he tells them with the kind of boyish excitement that's a world away from airport check-in queues" - "The Times". "Read "Absolute Altitude" for the sensitivity and shrewdness with which Buckley describes people he encounters. He has an unerring instinct for remarkable lives behind ordinary exteriors" - "Independent". "Buckley writes wonderfully well, with a novelists ear for dialogue" - "Evening Standard". | 
