Jean Batten: The Garbo of the Skies

Jean Batten was one of the great aviation megastars of the 1930s. Her spectacular flights ranked with those of Britain’s Amy Johnson and America’s Amelia Earhart. Yet, despite her brilliance as a pilot, she remained the least well-known of them all, for the dentist’s daughter from New Zealand built an impregnable wall around her private life – which was dominated, though few knew it, by the formidable influence of her mother.

Drawing on secret memoirs found after Jean Batten’s death and on hundreds of interviews with people who knew her, this biography of Jean’s sad and elusive life explodes the enduring myths of happiness and perfection she created for herself. It also solves the mystery of her bizarre and lonely end.

The real Jean Batten emerges as a fascinating woman, who combined bravery and ruthlessness with the stunning and seductive beauty she used so effectively to fulfil her ambitions.