'We are all born flightless, every one. After so many thousands of years each of us still drops into the world smooth-skinned and featherless.'

Why have we never been content to keep our feet on the ground?

In the 1960s this desire to get high exploded with the LSD counterculture and the Apollo missions. In this unique and dazzling book, acclaimed author Kester Brewin (MUTINY / AFTER MAGIC) explores the history of the human quest for transcendence, and how, following a family tragedy, it blighted his own life.

Drawing on a...