The Lost Pilots: The Spectacular Rise and Scandalous Fall of Aviation’s Golden Couple (Pan Macmillan), by Corey Mead

The Sahara Desert, February 1962: the wreckage of a plane and its long-dead pilot emerge from the sands. Who was he? And what had happened to him? Baker Street, London, June 1927: Jessie Miller, 25, has fled a loveless marriage, longing for adventure in London. At a gin-soaked party, she meets Bill Lancaster, fresh from the Royal Air Force, his head full of a scheme that would make him as famous as Charles Lindbergh, who has just crossed the Atlantic. Lancaster wanted to fly from London to Melbourne and in Miller he knew he had found the perfect co-pilot. By the time they landed in Melbourne, the daring aviators were a global sensation and, despite still being married to other people, in love. Keeping their affair a secret, they toured the world until the Wall Street Crash changed everything after the funds disappeared. A shocking crime occurred thereafter. The trial that followed put the couple back on newspaper front pages and drove Lancaster to a reckless act to win back what he had lost. This story is based on the author’s many years of research, a work of narrative non-fiction that offers one of aviation’s leading female pioneers a place in history.