Beyond the blue horizon

Alexander Frater

Published by Penguin Books, softcover

The romance and excitement of the legendary Imperial Airways Eastbound Empire service–the world's longest and most adventurous scheduled air route – relived fifty years later in one of the most original travel books of the decade.

`Whether being mown down by stampeding Baghdad-bound passengers in Cairo airport, or battling with Indian Airline staff (and failing) to reconfirm six vital on-going flights from Delhi, or being lured unwittingly into a souvenir shop selling pornographic wood carvings in Lombok, or hitting tropical cyclone Ferdinand in a 748 en route from Sumba to Bali, Frater rises above it all with humour, style and a wonderfully sharp eye' – Christopher Matthew in the London Standard