Product Description

A story that combines travel with personal memoir. Rory MacLean sets off to Crete, the land where Icarus and Daedalus made their maiden flight. There, with help from his Cretan neighbours, he attempts to build a woodhopper from scratch and make it fly.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #845128 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 334 pages

Sunday Times
'A book that mixes lyricism with humour and compassion. MacLean's writing is at once whimsical and serious, funny and painful...'

The Scotsman
'A marvellously compelling story by any standards... destined to become a classic.'

Colin Thubron
'The heart-warming evocation of one man's loving obsession: lyrical, funny, compassionate'

Customer Reviews

Simply wonderful !
Falling for Icarus may well, when it comes out in paperback, soon find itself progressing from cult to major success in a very short time. Why? Well this is that real modern rarity, a travel book that is original without being ridiculously contrived, yet from the reviews you might think that it was!

Several years ago, confused after the death his mother, the author took himself off to Crete and there - in the land if Icarus and Daedalus - set about fulfilling a life's dream; to construct and fly his own airplane.

This is something of a beguiling story. MacLean mixes the eccentric story of the airplane - a task simply accepted as quite natural by the locals - with insights into the history of Crete, accounts of the myths of the island and some loving portraits of the locals of the village in which he stayed and of the others that helped him along the way.

For those who love travel literature there is lots to admire about this book. While it isn't in the same studious and authoritative league as Leigh Fermor there is much here to admire, all written in an easy and entertaining style. This has more substance than, say, a Bill Bryson book.

MacLean makes you really feel for the characters that inhabit his little bit of Crete not least because he mixes humour with sadness and heartache with great effect.

This could be the next Captain Correlli's Mandolin - though please, please do not let that put you off. Just make sure you read it early and enjoy spreading the word!

Best of 2004
I'll be surprised and delighted if I read anything this year to deprive this title of my personal best book of the year award. Fascinating on Crete and the Cretans and casting a wider light on life it is touching, humourous, insightful and gripping. In short buy it! You won't be disappointed.

very moving
I read this book whilst in Crete this year and found it one of the best books I have read in a long time. I read Stalins Nose last year and found it funny and informative, this book on the other hand was not only funny and very similar to my experiences with Cretans, but it was also very moving and I must admit, brought a tear to my eyes when I finished it.Any book that can do that, has to be ranked, at least in my view a classic. Read it and enjoy.