A riveting story that plays out against the background of one of the most intriguing chapters in aviation history. David Dennington weaves a fascinating web of romance, courage, tragedy and shattered dreams and gives the reader a front row seat to eye-opening, high-stakes political battles on two continents. A real page turner with the constant feeling that something new and unexpected is about to unfold.- David Wright, former journalist with the Daily Mirror.
After WW1, Lou Remington leaves the Marine Corps and joins the Navy to fly airships. He is sent to England to train with his crew to fly R38 back to New Jersey. After a terrible accident, he falls in love and settles down to a blissful life in rural Yorkshire. But the British come knocking at his door with offers for him to assist in building the safest and mightiest airships the world has ever seen. Accepting the position could lead to a spectacular career with infinite rewards–or maybe cost him his life.
The British Airship Program is a morass of infighting and political intrigue. Two teams are pitted against one another, each to design and build their own massive airship, modeled as ocean liners of the sky–one will fly to Canada, the other to India. By design, only one team will survive this deadly competition. As an outsider and seconded liaison officer between the two teams, Lou Remington’s mission is simple: Keep the peace between the warring parties and help prevent another national tragedy. But it is the misguided passions of the charismatic Lord Thomson, which have more to do with a certain Romanian princess than with aviation, which threaten Lou’s goals and forever change the lives of all involved, foreshadowing the demise of the British Empire.
Praise for The Airshipmen
This is a big story, layered and cinematic–one that I did not want to end. I could not imagine myself reading a book about airships, but it’s much more than that–it’s about blinding love, vaulting ambition, loyalty, greed, deception and the whole gamut of human frailty. It’s about a wonderful group of people that I came to love–full of secrets and surprises. I could not put this book down.- Edith Schorah, Editor, Palm Beach Co., FL.
Hats off! A gripping story masterfully told, the book reverberates in the reader’s mind long after it is over. The characters are believable and involving, complicated, rich and conflicted. The chronicle renders these historical characters in flesh and blood, their saga replete with concrete and exquisite details. This is a wonderful book–humane and filled with the love of the men for their wives and families, while at the same time, highly attuned to the highest levels of power and the effect that the decisions made at those echelons influence, not only the course of human events on the grand scale, but the very humble small-scale lives of the men caught in the crossfire. It illuminates a fascinating period of recent history almost lost from view and it does justice to the complexities of the personalities of the people involved.- Steven Bauer, former Director of Creative Writing, Miami University, Oxford OH.
