Events
The tragedy of the British airship R101—which went down in a spectacular fireball in 1930, killing more people than died in the Hindenburg disaster seven years later—has been largely forgotten. In his latest book, historian S.C. Gwynne resurrects it in vivid detail, telling the epic story of ambition gone dangerously wrong. With his great talent for capturing an era, Gwynne shows how the danger of the hydrogen-filled colossus, while obvious in hindsight, was obscured by hype and optimism. He also delves into the doomed romance between an ambitious British officer and a married Romanian Princess, which gives the story its heart.
S.C. Gwynne is the author of Hymns of the Republic and the New York Times bestsellers Rebel Yell and Empire of the Summer Moon, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He’s spent most of his career as a journalist, including stints at Time and Texas Monthly.