Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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The last flight of the Gremlin Special

margaret hastingsThe lady portrayed here by the side is Corporal Margaret Hastings, WAC.
She was one of the survivors of the Gremlin Special1, a C-47 Skytrain that, on the 15th of May 1945 crashed in unexplored Shangri-La valley, New Guinea.

Margaret Hastings, described as a woman that “liked her liquor, in moderation, and her men, also in moderation”, had apparently joined the service to escape a life of spinsterhood in her hometown.
She was thirty, and beautiful – spinsterhood?

This seems to have turned into a women & airplanes sort of week, so, why not take a look at the adventure of the Gremlin Special? Continue reading →


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The true adventure of the WASP

cover79908-mediumFor 27 months, between 1942 and 1944, eleven hundred and two women flew military aircraft as part of the US war effort.
They did not engage in combat, but (mostly) ferried new planes to their destinations – a key role, because planes don’t fly on their own.

The story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots is one of those often overlooked bits of history that are the main reason why I love history.

Now, Sarah Byrn Rickman, probably the foremost expert on WASP history, has published WASP of the Ferry Command, a complete overview of the WASP ferry pilots – based on official reports and documents and, most importantly, on interviews with the surviving members of the unit. Continue reading →


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The noir shadows of L.A.

51yDStJIzZL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_I was talking with a friend, yesterday, about Ray Chandler and Los Angeles – how the author was such a keen observer of his environment, that his voice has become the default voice of LA, and you can’t really set a story in Los Angeles1 without slipping somehow in a chandleresque mode.

The discussion reminded me of a fine book I have here on my shelf – bought more than ten years ago, and part of my collection of noir-related books.

It’s called Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles, and it was written by Elizabeth Ward and Alain Silver.
Silver has devoted most of his work as a critic to genre movies and noir in particular, and obviously the volume does have a noir feel to it. Continue reading →


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How to be an Adventurer

OK, I was writing yesterday’s post and I was surprised when I noticed that Tracey Curtis Taylor describes herself, on her her website, as an Adventurer.
Now, sure, that’s as cool as ever but…
…
OK, quite simply, I was told you can’t be an adventurer.
And fool that I was, I believed it.
Despite being primed – as a generation – to become adventurers, raised on a steady diet of Moon landings and Skylab, undersea exploration and travels in foreign lands, ancient mysteries and lost civilizations, we were told it was quite fun and all that, but now we should forget about it and find ourselves a job.
Possibly something very boring, capable of killing any remaining spark of life still residing in our soul.
Even those of us that – contrary to all common sense – went and became geologists, paleontologists or oceanographers, were later told we had had our fun, now go and get a proper job. Continue reading →