A Journey with a Pilot

Skyfaring

An airline pilot captures the wonder of flight for the modern traveller. 
 
'In Skyfaring Mark Vanhoenacker reveals his passion for flight...the meaningful geography of the skies and the scent of the cities he flies to... This mesmerising book will make you view the world differently' 
Sunday Times

Vanhoenacker is a remarkable writer. In Skyfaring he reveals his passion for flight, the mechanics of planes, the weightless, meaningful geography of the skies and the scent of the cities he flies to. He creates a still, almost poetic point in the turning, travelling world. This mesmerising book will make you view the world differently. All aboard!

[An] ode to the wonder of flight in the tradition of the great pioneer pilot-author Antoine de Saint Exupéry and Charles Lindbergh... flying remains a magical business

Mr Vanhoenacker, fortunately for his readers, has lost none of his sense of wonder at the miracle of flight itself... a beautifully observed collection of details, scenes, emotions and facts from the world above the world

A description of what it’s like to fly by a commercial pilot who is also a master prose stylist… This is a man who is at once a technical expert – he flies 747s across continents – and a poet of the skies. This couldn’t be more highly recommended

A beauty. For so many flying has become humdrum: a bus journey to be endured then forgotten, not enjoyed and recalled. Vanhoenacker makes it wondrous again.

Beautifully... simply put. Vanhoenacker's prose has a functional eloquence that carries the reader along for the ride.

Reminds us of the magic of aviation... full of information that is wonderful in its simplicity

[An] endlessly surprising, strikingly original book... combines intelligence and sensitivity with an "outward-looking introspection"

Not since Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s classic Vol de Nuit…has there been such a fantastic book about flying… Skyfaring takes the genre to a whole new level. I found myself turning over the corners of almost every page with excitement and admiration

Engaging, even poetic...Vanhoenacker’s passionate and beautifully written book will remind even the most jaded traveller of the wonder of flight

An elegant meditation on how flying can lift the soul

A longhaul airline pilot whose vision is unexpectedly poetic and romantic...what stood out for me was that sense of wonder up there...a rather lovely book

A poet of the skies to rival St Exupéry... an author of real distinction with a genuinely poetic sensibility as well as a memorable turn of phrase... a perfect voice for a glorious subject... This really is a very good book

...both a manual for infrequent flyers (wherein the physics and metaphysics of time and space are for once essayed in a perfectly straightforward manner) and a skilful meditation on the glories of traversing the earth at the helm of mankind's greatest technological achievement that - yes - flies from the page

Poets are pilots of a kind, teaching us to navigate the world anew; Mark Vanhoenacker is a pilot with the spirit, the wide-open eyes, the rare feel for beauty and discovery of an accomplished poet. Imagine Henry David Thoreau reflecting on the wonders of the lights of Oman as seen from the cockpit of a 747, and you begin to have something of the fresh magic of this exceptional debut. This is a work for anyone who longs to learn how to see again, and to live.

Part autobiography, part travelogue, part prose poem... a powerful antidote to the conventional belief that the romance of flight has been lost in the modern age of mass transit

A refreshingly meditative perspective on a life in the clouds

Packed with eloquent insight into a high-flying world

Read it, and you’ll find yourself requesting a window seat every time you fly

A joyful and inspiring book that will change the way you think about travel

This endlessly surprising, strikingly original book is a hymn to the wonders of [Vanhoenacker’s] working life

For nervous fliers – and those jaded by airport security and the other tiresome rituals of air travel – I recommend the book Skyfaring

The mind of a scientist and the heart of a poet

A wonderfully evocative and clear-eyed account of what it’s like to criss-cross the globe for a living

If you believe that airline flying has become a monotonous, humdrum experience…then reading this book will take you to a fresh and thoughtful appreciation of the magic and excitement of flight

A masterpiece of time, distance, palm trees, frosty mornings, lofty ambition and self-effacing charm

Vanhoenacker is a 747 pilot with a poetic streak. The book teaches you about the physics of flight, complete with tidbits like the fact that altitude is more concept than hard fact, but the writing makes flying feel as amazing at it really is: a journey around the world while flying over it.

A superb chronicle...Vanhoenacker makes jet travel seem uncanny and intriguing all over again…[he] writes in a richly ethereal style, with the confidence of a professional who knows his subject…an elegant, nonlinear reflection on how flying in a commercial airliner—even while painfully folded in a seat in coach—can lift the soul

an exceptionally lucid and philosophically minded writer. He has spent the past several years taking notes about his life in the air and meditating on both the ethereal beauties and contradictions of flight...He reminds me of a brainy college physics major who actually wants to be a poet

A pilot’s love affair with the sky, it’s a beautifully written account of one of mankind’s greatest achievements

A great read for absolutely everyone with an interest in flying

What a great idea this is...a masterpiece of time, distance, palm trees, frosty mornings, lofty ambition and self-effacing charm

A fascinating book that ought to put flight in a new light for many people

Alive with the joy of everything from takeoff…to the dream-like quality of flight itself

Marvelously literate… If [Vanhoenacker’s] book had been around in the mid-‘80s, I suspect I wouldn’t have been afraid to fly in the first place

In the pages of his book…you will find yourself agreeing that “The ordinary things we thought we knew…becomes more beautiful”

Commendably, the technical aspects are outlined in a straightforward, accessible manner, while overall the book demonstrates that aviation has lost none of its appeal

For anyone who wishes to get a pilot’s insight into what it’s really like to notch up thousands of miles and hours… – you won’t find a much more passionate account than this one

[Vanhoenacker] invites readers with him on to the flight deck, describing the minutiae of flight with a degree of detail that would be nerdy were it not for the poetry of his writing

As you battle with the cramped legroom in economy class, [Vanhoenacker’s] view of aviation may just transport you

[An] elegant meditation on being an airline pilot

[Vanhoenacker] wants us to fall in love with flying again

A highly readable account, as moving as it is unexpected, of what flying means, by an airline pilot with a gift for words. Antoine de Saint-Exupery lives again

[This] airborne odyssey of a book is enthralling, from the physics of lift and the vicissitudes of flight paths to the aura borealis and the pristine sunsets. Read it and you’ll request a window seat every time you fly

This mesmerising book will make you view the world differently

Few people have captured the fascination of flying as well as U.S. journalist and pilot Mark Vanhoenacker.

Delves deeply into the magic and beauty of flight. An elegant writer with a sharp eye and a literary mind, Vanhoenacker… Writes about flight on an emotional and spiritual level, how it makes him feel to soar above the Earth while watching the landscape pass below.

He spins a curious and articulate exploration of flying.

Vanhoenacker’s calm and scrupulously composed prose style is soothing… Vanhoenacker manages to make flying seem exciting again.

A beautiful, contemplative book… What Skyfaring gives is something we need: elevation; another perspective… Normally when I find a volume where prose style and subject matter fuse so pleasingly, I tear through it in a day. Here, I found myself pausing on almost every page, as I absorbed its detail or phrasing.

Here is the simple wonder that remains at the heart of an experience which modern travellers all too easily take for granted.

A writer of exquisite prose, fascinated both by the technical and mystical aspects of flight... In every line of this lovely book, there is something beautiful and strange.

This is the best book I've ever read on the subject... It's one of the best travel books I've ever read... Superb.

An unexpectedly lyrical memoir on a fascinating subject… Skyfaring will give you a delightfully fresh perspective on the wonder that is air travel.

It’s calm, poetic and riveting… Fascinating.

He writes beautifully about the strange, alien world of high-altitude passenger flights… Vanhoenacker loves flying and communicates beautifully its marvels and mysteries.

I loved this fabulous insight into the secret world of the sky.

Mark Vanhoenacker is a commercial airline pilot and the author of the international bestseller Skyfaring and How to Land a Plane. A regular contributor to the New York Times and the Financial Times, he has also written for Wired, The Times and the Los Angeles Times. He worked in business before starting his flight training in 2001. He now flies the Boeing 787 Dreamliner from London to cities around the globe. Described as 'a poet of the skies' (Spectator), Mark changes how readers view the world.

**Sunday Times Bestseller** 
**Book of the Week on Radio 4** 
 
'A beautiful book about a part of the modern world which remains genuinely magical’ Mark Haddon 
 
'One of the most constantly fascinating, but consistently under-appreciated aspects of modern life is the business of flying. Mark Vanhoenacker has written the ideal book on the subject: a description of what it’s like to fly by a commercial pilot who is also a master prose stylist and a deeply sensitive human being. This is a man who is at once a technical expert – he flies 747s across continents – and a poet of the skies. This couldn’t be more highly recommended.' Alain de Botton 
 
Think back to when you first flew. When you first left the Earth, and travelled high and fast above its turning arc. When you looked down on a new world, captured simply and perfectly through a window fringed with ice. When you descended towards a city, and arrived from the sky as effortlessly as daybreak. 
 
In Skyfaring, airline pilot and flight romantic Mark Vanhoenacker shares his irrepressible love of flying, on a journey from day to night, from new ways of mapmaking and the poetry of physics to the names of winds and the nature of clouds. Here, anew, is the simple wonder that remains at the heart of an experience which modern travellers, armchair and otherwise, all too easily take for granted: the transcendent joy of motion, and the remarkable new perspectives that height and distance bestow on everything we love. 
 
‘A beautiful, contemplative book… What Skyfaring gives is something we need: elevation; another perspective… Normally when I find a volume where prose style and subject matter fuse so pleasingly, I tear through it in a day. Here, I found myself pausing on almost every page, as I absorbed its detail or phrasing.’ Nicholas Lezard, Guardian 
 
**A 2015 Book of the Year – The Economist, The New York Times, GQ and more**

Mark Vanhoenacker

Imagine a City... will enchant and even move anyone who feared in recent years for the future of both travel and urbanism

Vanhoenacker is exceptionally well travelled, and an exceptionally curious and widely read observer... He doesn't waste an hour, and with every return his engagement with each city deepens... Superb

Dreamy and erudite... [Vanhoenacker is] a most likeable, warm-hearted narrator with an original world view

Imagine a City is really about home... a variation on the Great Expectations narrative, with our young hero feeling uncomfortable where he grows up, flying the nest for a series of transformative experiences but discovering he can never quite leave home nor fully return

What makes Mark Vanhoenacker's Imagine a City such a joy, is that this is a travel book entirely rooted in modernity and globalization... but which nonetheless retains the wide-eyed wonder, not so much of a 19th-century explorer as of a medieval pilgrim

In this new work, Vanhoenacker... plunges deeper into his own past growing up in Pittsfield as a gay man... His autobiographical vignettes are searching and touching, delivered with an affectionate lyricism

More personal [than Skyfaring], but with the same reassuringly precise and perceptive voice

Mark Vanhoenacker is a beautiful, lyrical writer who uses his experience as a pilot to bring us constantly in touch with the transcendent and the other-worldly

A enriching memoir of how a sensitive, introverted boy's yearning for escape and acceptance found its fulfilment in the life of an airline pilot... A touching survey of human dreams and endeavours and a hymn to the quiet pleasures of returning, in the flesh or in memory, to the intimate geography of one's hometown

Refreshingly personal and moving... This absorbing modern twist on the age-old story of flying the nest, yet yearning for home, will transport you around the globe and back again without leaving your seat

Mark Ovenden, author of AIRLINE MAPS and LONDON UNDERGROUND BY DESIGN

I absolutely love the way Mark Vanhoenacker writes about the world; he gives you a whole new way of seeing

Jenny Colgan, author of SUNRISE BY THE SEA

An utterly remarkable and original travel book. Like Jan Morris and Pico Iyer, Vanhoenacker weaves memoir and travelogue, using his unusual perch as a pilot to take us on an incredible journey to dozens of cities around the world. Like Italo Calvino, he somehow weaves it all into one, a painfully beautiful cubist city of memory and dreams that rises out of his warm and lyrical prose

Andrew Blum, author of TUBES and THE WEATHER MACHINE

A tour de force of descriptive power and honesty; I can think of no other book like this one

Tom Zoellner, winner of the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction

Quietly thoughtful without being either self-conscious or -indulgent. Vanhoenacker retains a refreshing sense of good fortune and even amazement that one can step into a cylindrical metal tube and emerge hours later into different air, different sunlight and a different world picture

Mark Vanhoenacker...weaves an account of this hugely gifted writer's small-town gay boyhood through evocations of the cities around the world he has come to love as an airline pilot

Shafik Meghji, author of Crossed off the Map: Travels in Bolivia

Few books nowadays truly break new ground but Mark Vanhoenacker succeeds in doing so with Imagine a City. Sensitive, smart and utterly fascinating, I have recommended it to almost everyone I know

Caroline Eden, journalist and author of Red Sands: Reportage and Recipes Through Central Asia, from Hinterland to Heartland

Mark Vanhoenacker is more than a British Airways pilot with the soul of a poet - he is without doubt the greatest travel writer since Bruce Chatwin

Tony Parsons, award-winning journalist and bestselling author of Your Neighbour’s Wife

You couldn't ask for a more literary pilot to have up at the sharp end of your next flight than Mark Vanhoenacker...[but] flying isn't so front and centre of his book Imagine a City, this time it's about where his flying takes him.

Tony Wheeler, author and co-founder of Lonely Planet

A Pilot’s Love Letter to the World’s Greatest Cities

A pilot's love letter to the world's greatest cities from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Skyfaring 
 
 
'A journey around both the author's mind and the planet's great cities that leaves us energised, open to new experiences and ready to return more hopefully to our lives' ALAIN DE BOTTON 
 
Growing up in his small hometown, Mark Vanhoenacker spun the illuminated globe in his bedroom and dreamt of elsewhere - of distant, real cities, and a perfect metropolis that existed only in his imagination. 
 
Now, as a commercial airline pilot, Mark has spent more than two decades crossing the skies of our planet and touching down in the cities he'd always longed to see. Imagine a City celebrates the metropolises he has come to know and love through the lens of the hometown his heart has never left. From the sweeping roads of Los Angeles and the old gates of Jeddah to the intricate, dream-inspired plan of Brasília, he shows us with warmth and fresh eyes the extraordinary places that billions of us call home. 
 
'Vanhoenacker... has a near-bottomless appetite for fresh sights and guidebook curiosities... Intimate and thoughtful' PICO IYER, AIR MAIL 
 
'A love letter to the cities he's returned to again and again... Vanhoenacker captivates when describing the silent beauty of a world glimpsed from above' Washington Post 
 
'Eloquent... A love song to cities the world over' Wall Street Journal

Mark Vanhoenacker

Praise for Imagine a City

Imagine a City... will enchant and even move anyone who feared in recent years for the future of both travel and urbanism

Vanhoenacker is exceptionally well travelled, and an exceptionally curious and widely read observer... He doesn't waste an hour, and with every return his engagement with each city deepens... Superb

Dreamy and erudite... [Vanhoenacker is] a most likeable, warm-hearted narrator with an original world view

Imagine a City... will enchant and even move anyone who feared in recent years for the future of both travel and urbanism

Vanhoenacker is exceptionally well travelled, and an exceptionally curious and widely read observer... He doesn't waste an hour, and with every return his engagement with each city deepens... Superb

Dreamy and erudite... [Vanhoenacker is] a most likeable, warm-hearted narrator with an original world view

Imagine a City... will enchant and even move anyone who feared in recent years for the future of both travel and urbanism

Vanhoenacker is exceptionally well travelled, and an exceptionally curious and widely read observer... He doesn't waste an hour, and with every return his engagement with each city deepens... Superb

Dreamy and erudite... [Vanhoenacker is] a most likeable, warm-hearted narrator with an original world view

Books by Mark Vanhoenacker

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