Author: ANN. BLAINEYPublisher:
ISBN: 9780369318695
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
King of the Air
Author: Ann BlaineyPublisher:
ISBN: 9780369355249
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 878
Book Description
A revealing portrait of a brilliant and troubled figure - a daredevil of the skies Charles Kingsford Smith was the most commanding flyer of the golden age of aviation. In three short years, he broke records with his astounding and daring voyages: the first trans-Pacific flight from America to Australia, the first flight across the Tasman, the first non-stop crossing of the Australian mainland. He did it all with such courage, modesty and charm that Australia and the world fell in love with him. A tickertape parade was held in his honour on New York's Fifth Avenue. At home, he became a national hero, 'Our Smithy'. Yet his achievements belied a traumatic past. He had witnessed the horror of World War I - first as a soldier at Gallipoli, later as a combat pilot with the Royal Flying Corps - and, like so many of his generation, he bore physical and emotional scars. The public saw the derring-do; only those close to him knew the anxious, troubled individual who pushed himself to the edge of health and sanity. In November 1935, Kingford Smith's plane crashed and he was lost at sea near Burma, his body never to be recovered. This brilliant work from one of Australia's foremost biographers reveals the complicated, tumultuous life of a fascinating figure, who pursued his obsession to the greatest heights of fame and catastrophe.
King of the Air
Author: Ann BlaineyPublisher: Black Inc.
ISBN: 1743820712
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 442
Book Description
A revealing portrait of a brilliant and troubled figure – a daredevil of the sky Charles Kingsford Smith was the most commanding flyer of the golden age of aviation. In three short years, he broke records with his astounding and daring voyages: the first trans-Pacific flight from America to Australia, the first circumnavigation around the equator, the first non-stop crossing of the Australian mainland. He did it all with such courage, modesty and charm that Australia and the world fell in love with him. He became a national hero, ‘Our Smithy’. Yet his achievements belied a traumatic past. He had witnessed the horror of World War I – first as a soldier at Gallipoli, later as a combat pilot with the Royal Flying Corps – and, like so many of his generation, he bore physical and emotional scars. The public saw the derring-do; only those close to him knew the anxious man who pushed himself to the edge of health and sanity. In November 1935, Kingsford Smith’s plane crashed and he was lost at sea near Burma, his body never to be recovered. This brilliant work from one of Australia’s foremost biographers reveals the complicated, tumultuous life of a fascinating figure, who pursued his obsession to the greatest heights of fame and catastrophe Ann Blainey is the author of the acclaimed I Am Melba, which won the 2009 National Biography Award and was the most popular book in the 2009 State Library of Victoria Summer Reads program. Her other books include biographies of Leigh Hunt and the Kemble sisters. ‘Brilliant ... Blainey’s fascinating book focuses on the inner as well as the outer man. While Smithy’s career highlights may be well known, his ambiguous relationship with fame, his drinking, and his doubts and fears were not. In this beautifully written, scrupulously researched and meticulously indexed work, Blainey has filled this gap to perfection.’ —Ross Fitzgerald, The Weekend Australian 'Crisply written ... Even people not particularly interested in the feats of aviators will find this book an engrossing read.' —Jim Davidson, The Sydney Morning Herald ‘Blainey is a pleasure to read and this biography is superbly researched’ —Michael McGirr, Australian Book Review
Dictionary of World Biography
Author: Barry JonesPublisher: ANU Press
ISBN: 1760465526
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 1005
Book Description
Jones, Barry Owen (1932– ). Australian politician, writer and lawyer, born in Geelong. Educated at Melbourne High School and Melbourne University, he was a public servant, high school teacher, television and radio performer, university lecturer and lawyer before serving as a Labor MP in the Victorian Parliament 1972–77 and the Australian House of Representatives 1977–98. He took a leading role in reviving the Australian film industry and abolishing the death penalty in Australia, and was the first politician to raise public awareness of global warming, the ‘post‑industrial’ society, the IT revolution, biotechnology, the rise of ‘the Third Age’ and the need to preserve Antarctica as a wilderness. In the *Hawke Government, he was Minister for Science 1983–90, Prices and Consumer Affairs 1987, Small Business 1987–90 and Customs 1988–90. He became a member of the Executive Board of UNESCO, Paris 1991–95 and National President of the Australian Labor Party 1992–2000, 2005–06. He was Deputy Chairman of the Constitutional Convention 1998. His books include Decades of Decision 1860– (1965), Joseph II (1968) and Age of Apocalypse (1975), and he edited The Penalty Is Death (1968, revised and expanded 2022). Sleepers, Wake! Technology and the Future of Work was published by Oxford University Press in 1982, became a bestseller and has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Swedish and braille. The fourth edition was published in 1995. Knowledge Courage Leadership: Insights & Reflections, a collection of speeches and essays, appeared in 2016. He received a DSc in 1988 for his services to science and a DLitt in 1993 for his work on information theory. Elected FTSE (1992), FAHA (1993), FAA (1996) and FASSA (2003), he is the only person to have become a Fellow of four of Australia’s five learned Academies. Awarded an AO in 1993, named as one of Australia’s 100 ‘living national treasures’ in 1997, he was elected a Visiting Fellow Commoner of Trinity College, Cambridge in 1999. His autobiography, A Thinking Reed, was published in 2006 and The Shock of Recognition, about music and literature, in 2016. In 2014 he received an AC for services ‘as a leading intellectual in Australian public life’. What Is to Be Done was published by Scribe in 2020.
Smithy
Author: Ian MackerseyPublisher: Little Brown GBR
ISBN: 9780751526561
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 454
Book Description
During his brief 38 years of life, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith (1897-1935) was one of the most celebrated public idols in history, becoming for a few years in the late 20s and early 30s a legend across the world for his brilliance as a pilot and his charismatic style among the pioneers of long-distance flying. The first person to fly an aircraft across the Pacific from America to Australia (in 1928) he broke many solo flying records, and this brought him a status greater than any modern astronaut - a crowd of 300,000 greeted him in Sydney. But the price of his heroism was high and the demands for celebrity and a messy private life ended in tragedy off the coast of Burma in 1935 in an attempt to fly from England to Australia. This biography explores his life and flying career.
Charles Kingsford Smith and Those Magnificent Men
Author: Peter FitzSimonsPublisher:
ISBN: 9781741360059
Category : Aeronautics
Languages : en
Pages : 1148
Book Description
Sir Charles Kingsford Smith is one of Australias most loved heroes. In an action-packed life, the indomitable Smithy went from fighting as a soldier among the carnage of Gallipoli and the Western Front, to taking to the skies against the likes of the Red Baron - for which he won the Military Cross for gallantry - before becoming the greatest peacetime aviator of his generation. Along with Charles Ulm, he was the first man to conquer the Pacific by air, the first to fly across the Tasman Sea, the fastest man to fly from England to Australia, and the first pilot to circumnavigate the globe by crossing the equator. With typical flair, FitzSimons also tells the story of the several breakthroughs, some of which were discovered in Australia, which laid the foundation for the Wright brothers success in 1903; the first flight across the Channel in 1908; Germanys Red Baron terrorising the Allies in 1917.
Author: Beau Sheil
Author: Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith
Author: Pedr DavisCharles Kingsford Smith and Those Magnificent Men
Author: Peter FitzsimonsPublisher:
ISBN: 9781460751909
Category : Aeronautics
Languages : en
Pages : 736
Book Description
The must-read story of the boy from Brisbane who became a wartime hero and aviation trailblazer. In an action-packed life, the indomitable 'Smithy' went from fighting as a soldier amid the carnage of Gallipoli and the Western Front to taking to the skies against the likes of the Red Baron - for which he won the Military Cross for gallantry - before becoming the greatest peacetime aviator of his generation. Along with Charles Ulm, he was the first to conquer the Pacific by air, the first to fly across the Tasman Sea, the fastest to fly from England to Australia, and the first pilot to circumnavigate the globe by crossing the equator. With typical flair, FitzSimons also tells the story of several breakthroughs, some made in Australia, which laid the foundation for the Wright brothers' success in 1903; the first flight across the Channel in 1908; Germany's Red Baron terrorising the Allies in 1917-18, before being shot down by an Australian; Ross and Keith Smith's first flight from England to Australia in 1919; the formation of Qantas in 1921; Lindbergh's stunning vault between America and Europe in 1927; the Great Centenary Air Race; the loss of the Southern Cloud; the saga of Bert Hinkler and much, much more... 'Undoubtedly the best aviation book I have ever read.' Dick Smith
