In this edition the text of The Examiner is presented as Swift wrote it, not as it was revised for publication by George Faulkner in 1738. And for the first time Swift's Examiners are juxtaposed with the Medleys of Arthur Mainwaring that replied to them every week. They bring the reader close to the actualites of London between November 1710 and June 1711. From the literary point of view The Examiner is important because it contains some of Swift's best work. Even under the pressure of weekly publication he was still able to achieve, in Herbert Davis's words, 'an aloofness as if beyond bias...

This book not only records the significant events of Canadian aviation but also pays tribute to the 'forgotten flyers who flew by guess and by God or with calculating caution - for the sheer love of flying - in the early days.'

The opening chapter recounts the first tentative experiments with that overgrown monster, the flying machine - at this stage, the glider. Next come the Barnstormers, the first professional airmen, trying desperately to wrest a living from the air, pioneering in the field of practical flying as little more than vaudeville performers. These were the days of...