2nd, 3rd & 4th June — SYDNEY
15th June — MELBOURNE
18th June — CANBERRA
23rd June — PERTH
24th June — ADELAIDE
30th June — BRISBANE

Charles Kingsford Smith and Those Magnificent Men by Peter FitzSimons:

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith is one of Australia s most loved legends.

In an action-packed life the indomitable Smithy went from fighting as a soldier among the carnage of Gallipoli and the Western Front, to taking to the skies against the likes of the Red Baron where he won the Military Cross for gallantry before becoming the greatest peacetime aviator of his generation.

Along with Charles Ulm, he was the first man to conquer the Pacific by air, the first to fly across the Tasman Sea, the fastest man to fly from England to Australia and the first pilot to circumnavigate the globe by crossing the equator.

Beyond Smithy, however, FitzSimons captures with typical flair how, in just 66 extraordinary years, aviation went from just a few feet off the ground to one foot on the moon. He tells the story of the breakthrough in Australia in 1894 which laid the foundation for the Wright brothers getting off the ground in 1903; the first flight across the Channel in 1908; Germany s Red Baron terrorising the Allies in 1917-18 before being shot down by an Australian; Ross and Keith Smith being the first to fly from England to Australia in 1919; the formation of Qantas in 1921; Lindbergh s stunning vault between America and Europe in 1927; the Great Centenary Air Race, the loss of the Southern Cloud; the saga of Bert Hinkler and much, much, more . . .