Outback Airman

by Harry Purvis with Joan Priest

Rigby, 1979 [First Edition], ISBN 0727010646, black and white photographic plates, hardcover, dust-jacket

Very Good Condition, some edge and shelf wear, some rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, ex-library with cancelled sticker to front end-paper, dust-jacket shows a little edge and shelf wear with a little rubbing to edges and corners, tape residue marks to inside wraps (see photographs)

"His first flight was at the age of nine; since then flying has been the passion and the measure of Harry Purvis's life.
He came to fly with many of the legendary Australian aviators, especially Charles Kingsford Smith.  With Smithy he went on barnstorming trips around the country in the Southern Cross and his reminiscences provide a rare insight of this famous man and his famous machine.
Harry's exploits also remind us of the constant devotion that was needed for seven days a week just to earn a wage or to keep the plane in the air.  He flew in an age of flamboyancy and danger, when cows still grazed on Mascot aerodrome and trains cut across the runway.  It was the age of forced landings, of terrifying hill take-offs, of flying circuses and joy rides and even of aerial newspaper deliveries."