THIS IS THE STORY of a car salesman from Inglewood, near New Plymouth, who became an air commodore in the RNZAF, then chief executive and, finally, chairman of Air New Zealand. The biography of Sir Geoffrey Roberts is, in many respects, a history of TEAL and ANZ. To a degree, too, it is the story of the war years of the RNZAF. Yet the man who was to become known as "the Father of Air New Zealand" had to cross the world to Britain in the 1930s to train as a pilot, so bereft was New Zealand then of opportunities to learn to fly. Once he had gained his wings, he was posted to the legendary, romantic passes of India's North-West Frontier, an unexpected place to find the RAF on air patrol.

This was a strange beginning to a career avowedly dedicated not to flying planes as such, but to helping from behind a desk or boardroom table others to do the job. from the flying boats of TEAL to the jumbo jet age, from RNZAF wartime operations to the Erebus crash, Sir Geoffrey has either a tale to tell especially in the case of later develop un ANZ a strong, relevant opinion t He Roots the past, present and future of Aiir Zealand into perspective, and gives verdict on the Erebus disaster. 1982 hardcover SIGNED COPY