One of the most successful books in recent months has been “Skyfaring” by Mark Vanhoenacker – a pilot’s account of the wonders of flying. It’s just out in paperback and is currently number 2 in the Sunday Times chart, and it was a best-seller in hardback too. Mark took an MPhil in History at Selwyn in the 1990s, and he went on to become a British Airways pilot.
His book has received glowing reviews. The New York Times said it was “a superb chronicle of his career as an airline pilot… Mark Vanhoenacker makes jet travel seem uncanny and intriguing all over again, finding delight in clouds, airports, rainstorms, fuel loads, sky gates, fragments of jargon, lonely electric lights on the plain, suns that rise and set four times in a single daylong journey and the fanciful names of waypoints on flight maps.” It was also a Book Of The Week on BBC Radio 4.
Mark tells us he’s not alone as a Selwyn pilot. A few months ago he found himself sharing a cockpit with Mark Benterman (SE2005). “Two Selwyn Marks, piloting a 747 to Cape Town, what are the chances?”
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