A Man in Space

 The lockdown is proving really effective in turning peoples attention to de-cluttering and spring cleaning. As a result there's loads of interesting stuff appearing on Ebay and similar outlets. One thing I never see at car boot or yard sales is vintage space books, so I often have a trawl on ebay to see if there's anything worth buying. This week turned up a nice little gem, the Apollo story book by New English Library. A softback, but in large format, almost like a coffee table volume, in heavy stock with a good page count. Printed in 1972, it has a cover price of 80p and as it was slightly marked on the cover, it was priced at an affordable £1.80!

 The staining was restricted to the cover and despite a few dog ears, its in great condition. The clincher for me however, was the author - Peter Fairley. Peter was the front man for much of the tv coverage of the Apollo programme, along with Tomorrows Worlds' Raymond Baxter and James Burke. He would always be present on articles on magazine programmes such as Magpie and Blue Peter and TomTom, and was always thorough and engaging in his reportage.

 The Apollo Story is a case in point, with excellent coverage of the early planning of the missions, crew training and selection and early launches. The book is full of full page spreads of colour and monochrome photos and diagrams with excellent explanatory text.

Fairly was quite prolific in his publishing of space books and two of his annuals are particular favourites of mine. He also wrote a small paperback for 'Look In' magazine on the possibility of life in outer space.