Alex Henshaw: A Flying Legend

摘要

Here we have the result of a co-operation between two men, each a master in his own field. When in 1979 Alex Henshaw had written Flight of the Mew Gull, the record of his Gravesend-Cape Town flight of 1939, his publisher commissioned artist Michael Turner to provide the cover illustration. Thus started a lifelong friendship between the two men. Turner would go on to produce further paintings illustrating events - and there were many of those - in Henshaw's flying career. Then came the idea of a book, with Henshaw providing the text and Turner the illustrations, and the addition of a fascinating selection of black-and-white photographs Henshaw had collected over the years. Sadly, Henshaw died in 2007 before completion of the volume, but others put in the required work to see it through to publication. The result is neither an autobiography nor a book of paintings. In fact, it is an illustrated record of a remarkable life, with some truly magnificent paintings and comments and asides from the man himself. Highly recommended to those with a suitably sized wallet and bookcase.