I’m a sucker for a testimonial on the front of a book. See publicists? It’s worth doing what you have to do to get a respected author to give a plug. In the case of The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin, I was won by the description “…in the spirit of Loving Frank and The Paris Wife…” – Loving Frank is one of my favourite books and although The Paris Wife is still hanging out in my TBR stack, trusted bookish friends have told me how ace it is. So, to the ‘wife’ at hand – Anne Morrow Lindbergh, married to famous aviator, Charles Lindbergh.

Before reading this book I didn’t know very much about the Lindberghs (and therefore have to trust that Benjamin has her facts correct). I had no idea that Anne co-piloted many of Charles’ historic and record-breaking flights; nor that Anne was the first American woman to fly a glider; I had no idea the couple were pursued relentlessly by the press; I never knew that Charles was widely thought of as a supporter of Hitler and Nazi Germany; I was not aware that Anne was an accomplished author; and I had no idea that their baby was kidnapped (sorry for that spoiler although it does seem that I was the ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD who didn’t know this). Continue reading →