» Book Review: ‘How to Land an A330 Airbus’

How to Land an A330 Airbus, by James May
Paperback, © 2010 Hodder Paperbacks, ISBN 9780340994580

At some stage in our lives, we’ve all been given rather pointless life skills manuals that outline fifty ways to tie a Windsor tie knot in less than thirty seconds. And Top Gear’s James May has come up with another kind of ‘man manual’: one that identifies such unique and vital skills the modern man should have.

With the catch cry of ‘Clear, Concise, Untested, Optimistic’, this title contains the really important skills you should have that you can’t readily download from the internet or find in another ‘man manual’.

Can you identify when you might be called upon to deliver twins, for example? Or to land an A330 Airbus in an emergency? Play the opening movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata? Cooking and eating your best mate in a dire situation? It’s all here!

A mixture of the things that interest him – as well as a few silly off-the-wall topics – this is an easy, light-hearted read.

I liked the underlying idea that that he wrote the book because he was bored with the ongoing portrayal of men as endearingly useless. It might contain plenty of pointless facts and topics that would be “frankly, very remote” to come across, but life shouldn’t be too serious, as this illustrates very nicely.

Using our unique ‘Chequered Flags’ rating system, we award How to Land an A330 Airbus…

OUT OF A POSSIBLE 5.

How to Land an A330 Airbus is can be purchased via most book resellers and also at Amazon.co.uk. Our review copy was supplied by Hachette Australia.