Product Description

'Nick Hornby meets Jeremy Clarkson -- acutely funny.' Mariella Frostrup. 'Antony Woodward goes up tiddly up up!A must read for everyone, everywhere.' Alex James, Blur Antony Woodward wasn't interested in flying, he was interested in his image. So in his world of socialising and serial womanising, a microlight plane sounded like the ideal sex aid. So why -- once he discovers that he has no ability as a pilot, it costs a fortune and its maddening unreliability loses him the one girl he really wants -- does he get more and more hooked? As he monitors the changes to the others in the syndicate; as he learns that there is a literal down-side to cheating in flying exams, shunning responsibility and pretending to know stuff you don't, the question keeps on surfacing. Why? As the misadventures mount -- accidents, tussles with Tornadoes, arrest by the RAF -- he keeps thinking he's worked it out. But it isn't until The Crash, in which he nearly kills himself and Dan (taking a short-cut in the Round Britain race) that the penny finally drops!. Flying is the antidote to modern life he didn't even know he needed. It's the supreme way to feel real.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #159501 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 274 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Anthony Woodward was never remotely interested in flying. And you don't have to be either to enjoy Woodward's book Propellerhead which tells the story of the author's hilarious and foolhardy attempts to learn to fly a microlight. The main motivation behind Woodward's determination to get his wings is to get the girls. Ever since his mate Richard had returned from Africa having learnt to fly, women seemed to flock to him. Richard had become "a person of deeper substance; tinged with a romantic whiff of intelligence, wealth and daring. Or so the girls plainly seemed to think." Incredulously, and infuriatingly, the bank manager had become a babe magnet. Having gone through long periods of unrelieved celibacy Woodward decides to join a flying syndicate (comprising of Richard and an eccentric Norfolk landowner and his son) and spends the weekends with his head in the clouds and his heart in his mouth. A kind of Those Magnificent Men Behaving Badly in Their Flying Machines, Propellerhead recalls one astonishing aeronautical escapade after the other--such as the time Woodward finds himself slap-bang in the middle of the flight path of a Battle of Britain fly-past. As you read about the hapless pilot's close shaves, near misses and direct hits don't be surprised to find yourself instinctively adopting the crash position. Uplifting and head spinning, Propellerhead is ultimately the story of a man on a flight of self-discovery. Strap yourself in. It's going to be a bumpy ride. --Christopher Kelly

Review
'A genuine original--smartly written, eccentric, funny, engaging, with just the right combination of anorak and anarchy!The flying sequences are fabulous, the historic ghosts of Bomber command are strangely moving, and the whole book stays wonderfully airborne throughout. It reminds me of the early lunatic Redmond O'Hanlon, and a bit of Roger Deakin's weird, soul-searching, swim-across-England book "Waterlog". Antony deserves to have a great success.' Richard Holmes

The Guardian
' It's all done with great narrative energy and a charmingly self-deprecating style '

Customer Reviews

Spiffing
At first I thought this might be one of those naval-gazing, trivia packed, obsessive accounts about a hobby that has become “comically” out of hand. Flying micro-light aircraft isn’t something that all of us have much interest in given that we value our lives too much, but I’ve always had more than a passive interest in flying. I suspect many of us think about flight, even if it’s only in the airport bar prior to our holiday when we wonder “What if a wing fell off?”, and it is pleasing to learn that the author doesn’t differ from us in that respect. Despite this, he is still drawn toward the romance of flight, and sets out with his friend to realise the twin ambitions of learning to fly and then impressing girls by telling them “Actually, I am a pilot”. To varying degrees of success, they achieve their ambitions.
The book is written with genuine warmth and unforced charm, and it never feels that the author is trying too hard to impress or amuse. Neither does he flood you with useless information on the technical aspects of flying a micro-light - it is the people and situations that are continually of interest. His obsession with flying, for instance, soon pales against his obsession with impressing a girl from his office who alternately ignores or flirts outrageously with him and every other rabid male she meets. The micro-light becomes a means to a romantic end, but you’ll need to read the book to find out which wins his heart in the long term. In my opinion Propellerhead knocks the socks off anything written by either Nick Hornby or Tony Parsons (although I admit the latter is faint praise) and I’d thoroughly recommend it.

It was really like that!
I'm a microlight pilot. I learnt to fly in a Thruster like Woodward's. Not only did I enjoy his beautiful telling of the tale, but I kept laughing in recognition of incidents and difficulties so much like those I encountered in my own training. I've even met people who claim to be the unnamed ones he writes about (microlighting is a small world in many ways). I still fly a Thruster.

The book is a well-deserved success. I recommend it to anybody who is struggling in their attempts to learn to fly, I recommend it to anybody who isn't, I recommend it to anybody who just wants an amusing read.

Very, very amusing...
This book was actualyl recommended to me by a friend... Knowing I was learning to fly microlights, he thought it would be appropriate!

Overall, this book is superb... very easy, light, humourous reading! Admittedly I can't quite remember the ending, but literally all events leading up to the end were hilarious... from his flying partners to the girl in the office!

Recommended for some light entertainment!