Slipstream by Roger McDonald

Roy Hillman  first achieved glory as a Pilot in the Great War and then as a stuntman in the early days of Hollywood.  When he became one of the first men to fly the Pacific he was a National Celebrity.  But though, to outsiders, Roy Hillman is the quintessential Australian hero, to those close to him he is a dominating and manipulative egoist whose behaviour deteriorates  as the pressures on him grow.  Against a background of business, politics and flying, this absorbing novel examines the price of fame as it is expressed in the Life of Roy Hillman, a figure whose haunting power is inseparable from the fascination of flight itself. 

This book is beautifully written and edited in a very readable way, clearly articulating the ‘passion and commitment’ of a Man, and his opportunities and options in Life that he has to decide upon during the 20th Century.