Old Bird - The Irrepressible Mrs Hewlett (Paperback)

For a mother to teach her son to drive is perhaps not so unusual, but for her to teach him to fly? Given that the year was 1911, that was most likely a first. But Hilda B. Hewlett had already achieved a first in the world of aviation. Three months earlier she had become the first English woman to gain a pilot's licence. How was it that the middle-aged wife of a well-known author came to be counted among the early aviation pioneers? A daughter of the vicar of an impoverished parish in South London, Hilda Beatrice Herbert was born in 1864 and married Maurice Hewlett, a barrister in Antiquarian Law, in 1888. He aspired to be a writer and Billy, as Hilda was affectionately known, encouraged him. When, ten years later, he published his best seller, a romantic historical novel, The Forest Lovers, the Hewletts began to enjoy unimaginable prosperity and Maurice was on his way to becoming a full-time writer and a member of the literary London scene. Billy, meanwhile, was acquiring a reputation for unconventionality. She already drove and maintained her own car, but it was whilst watching a new-fangled contraption of an aircraft rise and fly above a muddy field that Billy was fired with an all-consuming desire. To own and fly just such a machine she was prepared to endure cold and hunger, boredom and poverty. It was a venture that was to take her into aircraft manufacture throughout WWI and to settle her, eventually, as Old Bird - her grandchildren only ever knew her as Old Bird - in New Zealand.

General

Imprint:	Matador
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	April 2010
Authors:	Gail Hewlett
Dimensions:	234 x 156 x 26mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	312
ISBN-13:	978-1-84876-337-1
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Biography & autobiography > Historical, political & military Books > Professional & Technical > Transport technology > Aerospace & aviation technology > Aviation skills / piloting Books > Biography > Historical, political & military
LSN:	1-84876-337-9
Barcode:	9781848763371

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