Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2007 | Page 33

INTERVIEW

life

of orders, he is out of work through
achieving exactly what he set out to do:
“As the celebrations died down, reality
struck. The single-minded focus of six
years’ work was gone, the goal had
been achieved. The Thrust team who
had stuck to their guns through thick
and thin was now disbanded. I was
out of a job and out in the cold.”
His mother had died, his marriage
had collapsed and his house had been
sold. But another small ad, this time
for work on a round the world balloon,
re-inflated his world. The Isle of Wight
again plays its part in the story, with Island
Plastics’ mould for a cess pit proving
just the thing for a capsule shell.
So just when you have ridden the
roller-coaster of Land Speed records,
the book takes you on to the new
journey of ballooning. Per Lindstrand
and Richard Branson are the leading
players now, funding and leading the
development of the super balloons that
are to take on the records across the
Pacific and around the world, and John
forges his links with Steve Fossett.
John, in his home in Ryde, is still living life
in the fast lane. He has just returned from
Miami where he is installing the latest in
a series, world wide, of tethered pleasure
balloons, and is about to disappear off to
Romania to service one he made earlier.
His Boys Own adventure is still going on.
Jet Blast, £29.29 plus p&p from www.
redlinebooks.co.uk or www.amazon.co.uk
Also from the:County Press Bookshop,
123 Pyle Street, Newport
Waterstones,
118 High Street, Newport
The Ryde Bookshop Ltd,
135 High Street, Ryde

John has flown from the point Fossett disappeared.
‘You scream up with the thermals, and you’re thinking
‘slow down!’ The fact Fossett was scouting for a dry
lake bed on which to attempt a world speed record
this month has chilling parallels to John’s story.

Island Life - www.isleofwight.net

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