The Lost Pilots

March 1, 2018
The tale of two intrepid aviators who got caught in a sordid scandal.On Aug. 2, 1932, William Lancaster, a renowned British pilot, stood trial for murder. Watching nervously among hundreds of spectators was Australian Jessie Keith-Miller, Lancaster's former co-pilot and lover. How the pair ended up in a Miami courtroom is the subject of Mead's (English/Baruch Coll.; Angelic Music: The Story of Benjamin Franklin's Glass Armonica, 2016, etc.) colorful, fast-paced narrative, a tale of ambition, betrayal, lust, and devotion. The story begins in 1927, when Lancaster and Keith-Miller took off from London, aiming to make a record-breaking flight to Australia, the first in a light plane. The two were basically strangers, but they bonded over their desire for adventure, fame, and escape from unhappy marriages. Lancaster had been a Royal Air Force pilot, but Keith-Miller learned to fly shortly before the flight. After two hours of instruction, she was already flying solo. Mead underscores the sexism that pervaded aeronautics in the 1920s: Keith-Miller and her new friend Amelia Earhart decried the "public prejudice against women aviators." Flying was undeniably risky. Planes were small, vulnerable to "slashing rain and battering wind," sleet, and fog; engines failed, fuel leaked, parts broke midflight, and crashes occurred with frightening frequency. When Lancaster and Keith-Miller landed in Australia, they instantly became "the world's thrilling new heroes." They also became lovers. In the months following their success, they looked forward to careers in aviation--until 1929, when a severe economic downturn dried up money for test flights and competitions. The author recounts the couple's financial troubles, which led Keith-Miller to take up a publisher's suggestion that she write her autobiography. She teamed with a ghostwriter, and while Lancaster was away pursuing a dicey moneymaking scheme, she fell in love with him. Lancaster was devastated, yet when he returned to Keith-Miller, he seemed resigned to their decision to marry. Then a shot was fired, and Miller and Lancaster became international news.A brisk, entertaining history of daring and passion.

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May 1, 2018

Mead (English, Baruch Coll.; Angelic Music) chronicles the intertwining lives of two pilots from the golden age of aviation: Bill Lancaster and Jesse Keith-Miller. In October 1927, they flew from England to Australia in a light plane, losing out by days from being "first," though Keith-Miller was the first female pilot to make the trip. Married to other people but wildly in love, the pair sought out new flying adventures in America. Following the Great Depression, flying work was spotty, and tensions within their relationship mounted. In 1932, Lancaster was arrested for murdering Hayden Clark, Keith-Miller's new lover who was allegedly helping to write her autobiography. The sensational trial exposed Lancaster and Keith-Miller's affair, along with a human trafficking and drug smuggling scheme. Lancaster was acquitted, and he and Keith-Miller left America. In 1933, Lancaster attempted to break the England to South Africa flying record but died in the Sahara. Mead makes excellent use of trial documents, family archival material, and previously published work on Lancaster (Ralph Barker's VERDICT on a Lost Flyer) and Keith-Miller (Chrystopher J. Spicer's The Flying Adventures of Jessie Keith "Chubbie" Miller). VERDICT Best suited for aviation enthusiasts.--Margaret Atwater-Singer, Univ. of Evansville Lib., IN

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 11, 2018
Mead (Angelic Music: The Story of Benjamin Franklin’s Glass Armonica) revisits a tragic and scandalous interwar romance in this vivid true crime narrative. The prologue, set in 1932 Miami, casts an ominous shadow over the story of William Lancaster, a British aviator, and Jessie Keith-Miller, his “longtime flying partner and lover, and one of the pioneering female aviators of the period.” Lancaster is introduced as a defendant in a murder trial, accused of fatally shooting Haden Clarke, Keith-Miller’s new paramour. Then Mead flashes back to 1927, when Lancaster and Keith-Miller, both in troubled marriages, first meet in London. After Lancaster mentions his plan to make history with an unprecedented solo flight from England to Australia in a light plane, Keith-Miller volunteers to arrange the necessary financing in exchange for joining him. Their successful venture makes them international celebrities, and they become lovers before growing apart in the wake of professional difficulties. Mead’s use of primary sources, including Lancaster’s diary and his lawyer’s private account of the trial, enables him to craft a age-turner that recreates a time when the people pushing the envelope of what early aircraft could do became heroes. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency.

April 15, 2018
In 1932, Haden Clarke, a writer engaged to assist aviatrix Jessie Miller in drafting her memoir, died via gunshot wound in a rented Miami house he shared with Miller and her flying partner, Bill Lancaster. Lancaster was tried for murder, and the story of his extramarital relationship with Miller (both were married to others) was exposed to the world. Clarke, who also was involved with Miller and had announced their engagement just prior to his death, was alone in the room with Lancaster at the time of the shooting. The question of suicide versus murder played out in the headlines as Miller defended Lancaster, and both struggled to salvage their reputations. Mead (Angelic Music, 2016) dives deep into the details, drawing amply on published reports and private diaries in a narrative that follows the development of Miller and Lancaster's impressive joint flying career, which devolved into alcoholism and poverty in the wake of the Great Depression. Though the prose bogs down, readers will appreciate Mead's reclamation of intriguing individuals, especially Miller, and this highs-and-lows chapter in aviation history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)