- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (1 Feb 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140253483
- ISBN-13: 978-0140253481
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.7 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 162,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
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!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
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.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
'Nostalgia's not what it used to be', so they say, but if this gem of a book is anything to go by that wistful and mysterious emotion is still as powerful and poetic a force as ever. In 'Corsairville', Graham Coster takes us on a mesmerising trip back in time to a briefly flowering golden age filled with adventure and high spirits, the 'lost domain of the flying boat'. Pivoting round the buccaneering tale of the luxurious 1930s Imperial Airways flying boat 'Corsair',' the jumbo-jet of her day, and her crash landing and subsequent heroic rescue from a swampy backwater in the old Belgian Congo (now Zaire), the book is really a finely crafted combination of travel writing and secret history. Coster is documenting his quest, an obsession with these strange old 'floating flying machines' that drives him to seek out their memory across the globe, from Malawi to Miami. There is even an element of suspense - at times towards the end of the book I found myself turning page after page, as if this were a gripping 'whodunit', to see if Coster could really make it back to that speck on the map once known as Corsairville. All the while the tale is enlivened by Coster's engaging analysis of his obsession with the subject of the 'air mariners' and what it says about the complex and often irony laden self image of the British. Using the reminiscences of former passengers and pilots to bring vivid personal detail to the subject, he muses on the odd power of these now mythical beasts to touch people's lives for ever (even those, like himself, born years after the last of these true 'air-liners' were put to the torch), whilst leaving behind them only the faintest of physical traces. The writing is consistently superb, making astute reference to other travel writers as well as poets and even TV shows, and also taking delight in the power of flying boat travel to rescue certain words themselves from numbness (e.g. air-craft, alighting, to be transported). There are also maps and numerous black and white illustrations, some of them quite stunning. And despite its focus on a forgotten futurism from a fading past, the book retains its contemporary perspective. In an age when the environmental damage caused by air travel is growing daily, the ability of the silver flying boats to arrive and depart leaving just a rush of spray and a memory, rather than a three mile concrete runway, seems both relevant and beautiful. Nostalgia is alive and well after all, and this revelatory book shows how we can enlighten ourselves a little with its power.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
I enjoyed it
I really enjoyed this book. It is a fascinating roll back in time to the era when flying was a luxury (not a cattle class endurance!). Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mr Kenneth E Moore
Flying Boat
This book was summarised several years ago in the colour supplement of The Telegraph and I have been searching for it since. Read more
Published on 23 Feb 2009 by I. Bloese
What a wonderful book
This book paints a vivid picture of Great Britain in the 1930's, I love the mix of travelogue part reminiscing, it made me wat to have at least seen one of these elegant giants of... Read more
Published on 10 Dec 2007 by J. H. Turner
Unusual book
This book is an interesting read. It tells the story of flyingboats thorough their early days to the period immediately after the Second World War. Read more
Published on 27 Feb 2007 by Mr X
Great Subject , Poorly written
The story of the forced landing of the Empire flying boat Corsair and it's subsequent salvage from the Belgain Congo should have been a fascinating read, however this is not the... Read more
Published on 12 Sep 2006 by Mr. G. B. Baird
Capturing voices that will soon be lost
Mr Costner's book, though ultimately disappointing to readers with prior knowledge of the flying boat subject, is a welcome addition to the archive of first-hand experiences of... Read more
Published on 9 July 2004 by David Skidmore
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!
Published on 2 April 2002
disappointing
I was expecting much more from a book on these flyingboats which are part of our aviation heritage. Very little technical information is given and instead we are treated to many... Read more
Published on 24 Aug 2001
An interesting history and perceptions of the flying Boat
I was looking forward to hearing more about the history and anecdotes from pilots,crew and Passengers of this short but fascinating era in aviation. Read more
Published on 19 Aug 2001
Disappointing
It is a little hard to explain why this relatively short book about a subject as interesting as the strange and romantic flying boats has been so easy to put down. Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2001 by Clive Pacey
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