Just finished the fantastic The Big Hop by @rooneyvision.bsky.social about the first flight over the Atlantic. It’s one of those bits of history that I had no idea about. A gripping read. I grew up near to Brooklands and had no idea about the aviation history of the place too.

THE BIG HOP is a Kindle Daily Deal today (at least in the UK). A mere £1.99! Well worth a punt I'd say, but you'll need to act fast... amazon.co.uk/Big-Hop-Non-... If you've already read it, would you care to leave an Amazon rating or review? It helps enormously!

I've just sent out the final post in this week's aviation series. After flying the Atlantic in 1919, what next for Jack Alcock? There's often a price to pay for being first. We owe the pioneers a great debt. I wish you safe travels... rooneyvision.substack.com/p/after-the-...

We're 3/4 through this week's series looking at what happened next for the Big Hop competitors. Today it's Ted Brown, the Vickers navigator. If you haven't yet read The Big Hop, you know what to do! One of the most remarkable stories of the modern age. rooneyvision.substack.com/p/after-the-...

We're 3/4 through this week's series looking at what happened next for the Big Hop competitors. Today it's Ted Brown, the Vickers navigator. If you haven't yet read The Big Hop, you know what to do! One of the most remarkable stories of the modern age. rooneyvision.substack.com/p/after-the-...

The second of this week's 4-part series of aviation posts has just gone out! Finished The Big Hop and want to know what happened after the contest was over? Today's post: Harry Hawker and Mac Grieve of Sopwith. Please like & subscribe, and so on. rooneyvision.substack.com/p/after-the-...

The second of this week's 4-part series of aviation posts has just gone out! Finished The Big Hop and want to know what happened after the contest was over? Today's post: Harry Hawker and Mac Grieve of Sopwith. Please like & subscribe, and so on. rooneyvision.substack.com/p/after-the-...

It's a bumper week of aviation content on the newsletter this week! If you completed The Big Hop and wanted to know what happened to the competitors after the contest was over, read on. Today's post: the Martinsyde men. Please like & subscribe, etc etc rooneyvision.substack.com/p/after-the-...

It's a bumper week of aviation content on the newsletter this week! If you completed The Big Hop and wanted to know what happened to the competitors after the contest was over, read on. Today's post: the Martinsyde men. Please like & subscribe, etc etc rooneyvision.substack.com/p/after-the-...

A few pics from NASMs recently reopened WW1 gallery. 1st up the Albatros D.Va, displayed outside the gallery entrance. This mid-war pursuit saw combat - bullet holes were found in it. 1/6

Shoutout to @rooneyvision.bsky.social whose great history of the 1919 Alcock/Brown crossing, The Big Hop, I've now finished. David, you tell this story so well; many thanks for casting your net to take in the roles of those on the Sopwith, Martinsyde & HP teams. You broadened my take on the events!

Ahoy, @rooneyvision.bsky.social, look what my terrific county librarian has lent to me (after a bit of a wait; folks have queued for it). Will get into it tonight, much looking fwd to it. Will check back in a couple of days.

Stopped to take some pics of these beauties. Lad cycling by shouts ‘They’re chess pieces!’ ‘They’re lovely,’ I say. ‘Yeah,’ he agrees, speeding off to deliver some drive by art knowledge in another part of town. William Mitchell, Basildon, 1966.

This is the cockpit of the Vickers Vimy flown by Jack Alcock and Ted Brown over the Atlantic in 1919. Open top. Canvas skin. The tightest squeeze! Pilots flying Boeings and Airbuses on the transatlantic routes today: how does this make you feel?! Hats off to the lot of yers!

Do you fancy seeing Jack Alcock on film, flying a Pathé cameraman named Jones over London in 1919? Course you do. Here he is. What an absolute belter. Read his story in The Big Hop. And if you liked it, care to leave a rating or comment on Amazon? www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTa0...

Do you fancy seeing Jack Alcock on film, flying a Pathé cameraman named Jones over London in 1919? Course you do. Here he is. What an absolute belter. Read his story in The Big Hop! And if you liked it, care to leave a rating or comment on Amazon? www.britishpathe.com/asset/58976/

I love bookstore staff picks. When it's THE BIG HOP it's even nicer. Unabridged Bookstore, Chicago: "A harrowing story of bravery, adventure, the pioneering spirit, and triumph over adversity. Great for Erik Larson fans, Owen recommends!" Thanks Owen 🙏 www.unabridgedbookstore.com/book/9781324...

A little roundup of today. Don’t think I’ve ever walked anything like the Waskerley Way - barren and ominous, but my god is it absolutely stunning. If you have even a fleeting interest in railways and love walking/cycling, get over and do the 12 miles. You will not regret

I'm so sorry to be spamming you with all this, but another review just came in for The Big Hop, and it made me blush... "The Big Hop may be the finest aviation history you ever get to read" It's a really lovely review... www.bookreporter.com/reviews/the-...

Fred Raynham, a Suffolk farmers' boy, escaped the agricultural depression, moved to Brooklands, and learned to fly at 17. He became one of Britain's most accomplished aviators. Hear his story—and many others—in THE BIG HOP. davidrooney.uk/the-big-hop Image: Library of Congress

Another review for THE BIG HOP. This time in The Observer. Wow. I'm hugely grateful to Andrew Martin! "The Big Hop reminded me of a John Buchan novel. Rooney has Buchan’s knack for acute imagery ... and for spare, compelling action scenes." observer.co.uk/culture/book...

I hugely enjoyed talking about The Big Hop with John Batchelor for CBS Eye On The World. Maybe you'd like to take a look. johnbatchelor.substack.com/p/the-first-...

🇺🇸 I had fun working with @wsj.com on "Five Best: Books on the Dawn of Aviation." It's in this weekend's paper. I chose books by Alberto Santos-Dumont, Muriel Hawker, H. G. Wells, Amelia Earhart, and Orville Wright. What do you think? Who would you add? www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

The Sunday Times reckons you should take THE BIG HOP on holiday this summer. "a glorious romp through an overlooked part of aviation history, stuffed full of intriguing characters and white-knuckle courage" Who am I to argue? www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

Another BIG HOP review. Woah. Miranda Seymour in Literary Review writes: "Cards on the table: I haven’t been so under the spell of a book about dangerous journeys since reading David Grann’s spectacular The Wager" 😲 literaryreview.co.uk/wing-it-to-w...

I'm currently reading 'Memories of Land and Sky' by Gertrude Bacon.

Not sure it completely fits the profile of the book you have identified, but this is one to read, keep on the shelf, and then re-read whenever you need a fix of aviation and inspiration: « West with the Night » by Beryl Markham. It's a truly remarkable memoir of a truly remarkable person. | 🛩️ 👩🏻‍✈️ 📚

Another BIG HOP review. Woah. Miranda Seymour in Literary Review writes: "Cards on the table: I haven’t been so under the spell of a book about dangerous journeys since reading David Grann’s spectacular The Wager" 😲 literaryreview.co.uk/wing-it-to-w...

🇺🇸 I had fun working with @wsj.com on "Five Best: Books on the Dawn of Aviation." It's in this weekend's paper. I chose books by Alberto Santos-Dumont, Muriel Hawker, H. G. Wells, Amelia Earhart, and Orville Wright. What do you think? Who would you add? www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

The Sunday Times reckons you should take THE BIG HOP on holiday this summer. "a glorious romp through an overlooked part of aviation history, stuffed full of intriguing characters and white-knuckle courage" Who am I to argue? www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

Long overshadowed by Lindberg, The Big Hop: The First Non-Stop Flight Across the Atlantic and Into the Future by David Rooney returns Alcock and Brown to aviation's top flight. ✍️ Midge Gillies reviews the recent #history book www.historytoday.com/archive/revi...

The Observer: "grips like a pacy thriller" "The Right Stuff in flat caps with the accumulating tension of a whodunnit" "reminded me of a John Buchan novel" "may be some danger of air sickness reading Rooney – but there is no danger of boredom" observer.co.uk/culture/book... 😊

People of East Anglia! I'll be discussing THE BIG HOP with the wonderful @midgegillies.bsky.social on Monday evening at Topping Booksellers, Ely. Would love to see some of you there! A tale of high adventure over the Atlantic ocean. You'll love it. www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/ely/r...

Well @sebfalk.com is a bloody gent, that's all I can say

Another review for THE BIG HOP. This time in The Observer. Wow. I'm hugely grateful to Andrew Martin! "The Big Hop reminded me of a John Buchan novel. Rooney has Buchan’s knack for acute imagery ... and for spare, compelling action scenes." observer.co.uk/culture/book...

It was a most civilized shipwreck. I've just posted my latest Substack—on the man who flew the Atlantic only to be shipwrecked two miles from Japan. rooneyvision.substack.com/p/he-flew-th...

I thoroughly enjoyed THE BIG HOP by @rooneyvision.bsky.social & look forward to hearing more on Mon 30 June at Ely Toppings. See you there! www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/ely/r...

It was a most civilized shipwreck. I've just posted my latest Substack—on the man who flew the Atlantic only to be shipwrecked two miles from Japan. rooneyvision.substack.com/p/he-flew-th...

Replica of the ‘Versailles hot-air balloon’. This hot-air balloon was the first, in 1783, to carry animals into the sky, before risking humans. The passengers were a duck, a rooster and a sheep. Their survival in flight led to the first human flight that same year. © Arte France

One thing you'll find is a lovely review of THE BIG HOP by @midgegillies.bsky.social. "Rooney's description of the crossing has all the panache of a Boy's Own story" — thanks, Midge! Midge's latest book, "Atlantic Furies," is out October and I can't wait to read it.

"I am safe upon your shore. Soldiers in khaki run up, and a policeman. Two of my compatriots are on the spot. They kiss my cheeks. The conclusion of my flight overwhelms me" — Louis Blériot, 1909, having just flown the Channel. More in THE BIG HOP! davidrooney.uk/the-big-hop

Long before Earhart came Jack Alcock and Ted Brown. In 1919 they achieved an aviation first when they flew non-stop across the Atlantic. They raced alongside three other teams, in simple planes, with no support through unpredictable skies. @rooneyvision.bsky.social tells us about 'The Big Hop'👇

Everyone's talking about Tom Cruise's biplane stunts in the new Mission:Impossible. They're wild! But what happened 110 years ago will shock you. I've written this about the death-defying realities of First World War aviation. rooneyvision.substack.com/p/before-tom... Pic: National Army Museum

I had a fun time discussing THE BIG HOP with the excellent @unseenhistories.com recently... www.unseenhistories.com/the-big-hop-...

Well, this was a nice surprise. THE BIG HOP was "Book of the Week" in The Times this weekend! Sorry it's a bit crumpled. I was in the pub (and was also a bit crumpled). "This book was a joy to read." Available now! davidrooney.uk/the-big-hop

Well, this was a nice surprise. THE BIG HOP was "Book of the Week" in The Times this weekend! Sorry it's a bit crumpled. I was in the pub (and was also a bit crumpled). "This book was a joy to read." Available now! davidrooney.uk/the-big-hop

Another lovely review of THE BIG HOP, this time in @thetimes.com. Gerard DeGroot kindly describes the book as "wonderful." I hope you all enjoy it as well, if you fancy getting a copy. www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

Great review of THE BIG HOP in @dailymail.co.uk this morning. Thanks to reviewer Neil Armstrong for his kind comments. www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/a...