Starways

Starways was the airline the world forgot. Now, 50 years on, a former air hostess tells her story. Patsy Leigh left school at just thirteen but that has not deterred her from writing this remarkable book: a vivid, affectionate and humorous account of her years flying high with Starways, Liverpool's much-loved former airline from the 1960s. Now in her early 80s, Patsy recalls the bad times as well as the good; the poor pay and the long hours; the turbulence on the ground as well as in the air. But there was fun aplenty too, as she mingled with the stars. We learn how Ken Dodd used to pull her leg and that Paul McCartney howled with laughter when Patsy admitted never listening to the Beatles. She kept her cool when a passenger died mid-flight alongside his frantic mistress. There was the time an engine leaked oil, forcing a landing in Nigeria just as independence celebrations were turning nasty. And let's not forget the skirmishes with Customs officers who didn't take kindly to spirits and cigarettes being smuggled beneath hats and uniforms. Captain George Leigh, pilot and senior manager, often took a dim view of his air hostesses' antics. At times, they feared for their jobs. But Patsy need not have worried. She didn't realise it, but Captain Leigh was starting to fall in love with her . . . The books is illustrated throughout with some two dozen archive photographs which Patsy kept from her time with Starways.