Product Description

It was the obscure legend of the flying boat Corsair, rescued from the Belgian Congo in an epic salvage operation, that fired Graham Coster's quest for the lost world of the flying boat. Coster's journey begins in Southampton, from where Imperial Airways' "Empire" boats departed to fly up the Nile on their way to South Africa, and takes him to the flying boats' old haunts in Uganda, Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe, from Lake Naivasha to Victoria Falls. More than a travel book, this text is a piece history, and a journey to a vanished age when air travel was truly an adventure that could change your life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #83798 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 276 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In March 1939, the flying boat (aka seaplane) Corsair crashed in the Belgian Congo. The accident spawned an absurd rescue operation: teams of engineers were sent out to one of the remotest corners of Africa, roads were hacked through the jungle, and a salvage operation was launched.

In Corsairville, Graham Coster sets out on a journey through Africa, Florida, Alaska and the Caribbean, seeking out this piece of vanished history and interviewing those who were involved in this operation. He also comes across many who still remember their journey on a flying boat as one of the most thrilling events of their lives. Just as much a history of the flying boat as a travel narrative, Coster cleverly juxtaposes people's memories with the sad tale of the brief flowering of a golden age.

The fondness in which flying boats are still held leads Coster to contend that they now represent an age when the act of travel was thrilling and wonderful, and had not been reduced to the sort of commodified trash which now seems to accompany all journeys. These memories 'were about countless individual destinies, times when history itself happened to people'.

While Coster recognises that some of the attitudes that accompanied flying boats patronised the former British colonies in an appalling manner, he nevertheless evokes a genuine sense of loss at the decline of these early wonders of aeronautical engineering, and has written a book which will appeal even to those who are not remotely interested in aviation. --Toby Green

Customer Reviews

A talented writer evokes the romance of flying
It is a pity that Amazon have simply categorised this book under 'travel and holiday', for though it is a book about a type of travel and takes the form of a travel writer's diary, it is a lot more besides. It is at one and the same time a history of the flying boat, an evocation of an era in the recent past, but seemingly remote, a series of sensitive and insightful portraits of unusual people and places and a personal journey in search of a dream. This is a book impossible to categorise: something between a history book and 'The Hunting of the Snark'. It is quite delightful.

I have nothing but admiration for the way the author weaves the threads which make 'Corsairville' a category-buster. He describes the technical details of how to take-off and land in a flying boat, but he gives you the emotion of it as well. He introduces you to the great men of flying boat history and the remarkable characters still involved with it, as in the marvellous chapter about the Alaskan Goose. He gets to places others do not reach, both points on the map and the recesses of subtle emotions. He can do so, I think, because he is a very skilled writer - whilst the book flows easily, it is on a different level from most pieces of travel journalism, for Coster jolts you out of stock responses with the deft choice of an unusual word or phrase: when the boats take off, they 'jounce', their pioneers harbour 'riparian' dreams.

It is history re-lived, and would make a marvellous TV broadcast, with dimensions even Michael Palin does not have. It is many journeys, but most of all a personal one of which this reader, at any rate, felt full of envy. Thanks to the author for letting me tag along in my imagination. Does he ever find the Snark? You'll have to read the book to find out!

Pretty good account of a forgotten past.
It appealed to me for those past glorious pioneering days, we all look at through rose tinted specs.
There was one chapter I thought was more suited for the plane anaraks, but the rest told me about some great events & people I never have of heard of before.
I felt it was a bit unfinished as there was not an account of Cosairville today.
Such a shame there are no Short Flying boats in the UK.

Excellent read for those interested in Flying Boats
Great to read, particularly if you have been to the Southampton Hall of Aviation where they have a whole Sandringham inside and allow you to visit the flight deck too!