Beyond the Invisible: Flying from Fear to Freedom

Product Review (submitted on 13 November 2011):

A paragliding novel? Come off it! No, really, it's true. Greg Hamerton is a South African pilot and instructor, and he's written a flying book! Only in some respects it's as much about flying as Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was about motorbikes - and in fact has a little of that book's flavour of self examination and discovery.

The book's sub-title - Flying from fear to freedom - gives the game away. It's the story of the narrator's actual and metaphysical journey towards a state of more profound understanding of this earth and of himself. Much of the journey is accomplished by flying, but much more by our seeker confronting his fears and breaking through them to discover the truths they contain. A number of encounters along the way each lead to deeper enlightenment, not least with a strange, semi-mystical, all-knowing fellow who drops big but sometimes unfathomable hints about the true meaning of life (shades of Richard Bach's Illusions here - it's no coincidence that Hamerton's company is called the Illusion Project). Also encountered, among other creatures, are the Sink Monster and a number of telepathic eagles, good pilots all, with whom our hero becomes ever more closely engaged.

This kind of all-the-world's-an-instruction-manual self discovery book is not new, and some of its aphorisms - 'You hold the key to change and freedom in your hands'; 'The answers are all out there, you just need to discover the questions'; Expect miracles!' - have a very familiar ring, but this is the first book by a free flier to attack such a delicate subject area. Hamerton's prose is nicely turned - some of his descriptive passages about actual flying are so sharp you can almost hear the fabric rustle above you - and his settings - Bulwer, Dasklip, etc, are at once familiar and enticing. Even if you're not bent on self-discovery, it's well enough written to hold your interest on flying alone, and (as free flying novels are about as rare as a gold-plated karabiner) it's hard to find a good reason not to examine it.

My verdict is full marks to Greg Hamerton for confronting his own fears and writing this book. It's perhaps a little over long, and occasionally repetitive, but the flying stuff is well done and the every-weakness-is-a-strength philosophy is by no means too hard to take and often uplifting. Whatever you keep in your harness for waiting-for-a-retrieve reading, get through it quick and substitute Beyond the invisible. You may not get to heaven, but for those lonely hours when your batteries have gone flat, it's the business.

Joe Schofield, editor of Skywings Magazine, UK