How to Fly Taking Wing with Birds, Bats, Insects and Humans

About this book

A unique and all-encompassing exploration of the wonders of flight and how different species have evolved different solutions to the problem – including humans.

Flight fascinates us. We thrill to birds, we adore butterflies, we're baffled by bats, and we can hardly believe in pterosaurs. We worship angels, and we compare love, religious ecstasy and artistic achievement to flight. We love the idea of flight so much we invented machines that at last allowed us to fly. Many died to make human flight possible.

In How to Fly, bestselling writer Simon Barnes brings together all aspects of aerial life – evolution, technology, mythology, religion, nature and imagination – in a celebration of the wonders of flight. Barnes looks at the physics of flight and how it has evolved quite separately four times over (birds, bats, insects and pterosaurs). He examines how these creatures do it: from the nocturnal agility of bats and the extinct reptile Quetzalcoatlus with its 33-foot wingspan, to barely competent pheasants. He also explores how the great poets, mystics, saints, musicians and athletes have all, in their different ways, succeeded in getting high and getting us high.

Sweeping in scope and packed with fresh insights, How to Fly is a book for the eagle within us all.

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Biography

Simon Barnes is a writer and journalist who was the chief sportswriter and wildlife columnist for The Times until 2014, having worked for the paper for 30 years. He is the author of many wild volumes, including the bestselling Bad Birdwatcher trilogy, Rewild Yourself and, most recently, Spring is the Only Season. He is a trustee of Conservation South Luangwa and patron of Save the Rhino. In 2014, he was awarded the Rothschild Medal for services to conservation. He lives in Norfolk with his family, where he manages several acres for wildlife.