Micro review 18 (Non Fiction November)

 

Space: The Human Story by Tim Peake (Cornerstone)

Regular readers, and people who know me IRL are aware that I am something of a space nerd, and that I love meeting astronauts and reading about them. Since Peake's flight into space he has written and spoken a lot about his experiences and I was slightly nervous that this was going to be another remix of what he's already said.

I was soooooooooooooo very wrong - this book is fascinating history of human spaceflight and even though I've read quite few (!) books on this topic there were lots of new to me anecdotes and he presents a new take on a lot of the history. 

He has a very wry sense of humour and makes some very pertinent points about the future of space travel, and even when talking about his space flight/training has new stories to tell.

If I am being picky I'd have liked to know more about the European Space Agency history and selection process, and n the Chinese crewed space programme doesn't event get a but these are minor points. My other disappointment was to do with the bibliography - I was poised, pen ready, to add new books to my wish list but out of the 44 books mentioned I'd only not read 9!

Reading this tied in nicely with the new series of For All Mankind - the AppleTV and also as a fitting tribute to the two Apollo era astronauts who sadly died recently.

Micro Review 40

 

The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield (Quercus)

Read as a proof but I have also bought a signed copy from the lovely Big Green Bookshop)

I don't know, no novels by astronauts for years and then two in the space of a month - this one is aimed firmly at grown ups however!

I liked the premise of this one - it is an alternative history where the Apollo moon landing programme wasn't stopped at Apollo 17 and instead of calming the Cold War it has in fact become rather hot - especially in orbit.

Hadfield has written a fast paced thriller that is shot through with proper space history and accurate portrayals of life in orbit. It is a sensational read and even with my quite deep knowledge of crewed space history learned a lot of new things - and the stuff I scoffed at as being too farfetched to be real often had happened. 

Mr Norfolkbookworm found a few (tiny) details that he was dubious about and my main niggle was some of the words that were put into real people's mouths - however on reflection as this is an alternate history I suppose this could explain it.

The Apollo Murders really isn't my preferred genre of reading, and if I am honest if it hadn't been written by Hadfield (or another astro/cosmonaut) I wouldn't have picked it up but it is always good to read out of your comfort zone and should another Hadfield penned thriller appear I will probably read it!

For fans of space history this is a fun read and a nice companion piece to the Apple TV series For All Mankind.

Book sharing as a family

 

Swarm Rising by Tim Peake & Steve Cole (Hodder Children's Books)

Advance reading copy

This book is a real family affair (not least because as you might have guess from reading this blog we're all into space travel!)

Kentishbookboy's grandad won an advance copy of this in a BookTokens competition and instantly handed it over to a grateful Kentishbookboy (and his mum!).

On a recent visit to see the family KBB very kindly lent me the book, with the proviso that I had to read it and give it back to him that same weekend as he was still only half way through! I now have to apologies to the rest of the family for basically ignoring them while I kept my promise!

In all honesty it wasn't a hardship to read this all in one go - I found it a compelling, exciting page turner and even if I hadn't been on a deadline I'd have read it just as fast.

Peake has set this just a few years into the future so that the tech isn't too far off what we have now but is just a little more advanced. There are more driverless cars and drones than in 2021 but we're still texting, playing computer games and getting takeaway pizza!

As an adult reading this book I could see where a lot of the plot was going, but that is just because of life/reading experience. There were still surprises and twists that I hadn't expected and there's also a lot of plot ideas that will make great talking points. It also has a couple of really strong messages in the plot but they did (just) seem natural parts of the story rather than preachy.

I'm not always overly keen on 'If you like xxx you'll love this' tags for books but as an adult I think that if you are an Andy Weir or Doctor Who fan you're likely to enjoy this - just don't forget you aren't the target audience.

The thing I like the most about this book is that Peake is quite open that he has co-written this with another (excellent) author - there's no hidden ghost writer or false claims about authorship. Having read books by both Cole and Peake I can 'hear' them both in this one and I think that the book is all the stronger for this.

Thanks to Dad/Grandad for sharing his prize, and to Kentishbookboy for letting me sneak my read in!

Micro Review 10 (Women in Translation month)

 

Diary of an Apprenticeship - Samantha Cristoforetti (trans. Jill Foulston)

August was women in translation month and this book was published (and delivered) just in time for me to be able to read it in August, even if the review is being published in September.

Regular readers will know that I am a bit (!) of a space nut and I've been waiting to read this for ages - it has been out in Italian for a while. As of December 2019 there have been 565 astro/cosmonauts and of these only 65 have been female. Of these 65 I think I can count on the fingers of one hand those that have written autobiographies - although there may be a few more biographies.

This book was a great read, most of the book was about the training regime for a European astronaut and just coordinating this sounded exhausting even before the technical and practical training actually started! The format was nice too - the first part of each chapter was written like a diary/blog entry and then there was some deeper thought/exploration about this to fill in details.

Despite not too much of the book being focussed on her actual time in space (mainly because Cristoforetti blogged extensively about her stay on ISS which can be read here) it captures both the excitement and repetitiveness of space training and space flight as well as a lot of her personality. 

Unlike some astronaut autobiographies Cristoforetti manages a perfect balance between honesty and enthusiasm - disappointments, problems and stresses are talked about but not dwelt upon, and at the same time it is clear that there are difficulties to overcome.

I'd never have known that this book was in translation, it read smoothly throughout and I guess that the publisher felt the same as nowhere on their website or the cover is Foulston mentioned, which is a real shame - although I know that Cristoforetti's English would have been good enough for her to write the book in English or translate it herself.

I'm always going to be an @astrosam fangirl as she is a Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy & Star Trek fan - plus she tweeted me from space!

Cristoforetti is an astronaut classmate of Tim Peake and his autobiography is due in a few weeks, as you can image I have that on pre-order already. It will be interesting to read his take on the training process...

Astronaut Untethered

Bruce McCandless, Space Lecture event. November 2017.

Apologies for the lack of detail in this write up - the event was as excellent as usual, with an incredible guest, but it fell in the middle of an incredibly busy couple of weeks for me and already the details are hazy.

While my memory is shot to pieces the same cannot be said of McCandless as his hour long lecture was interesting - and like so many events lately covered all sorts of topics, including quidditch!

From my point of view I was a little sad that there wasn't more of McCandless's memories and personal history - this is the area that I am most interested in - but I quickly became enthralled with his detailed analyses of why we need to keep exploring and the pros and cons of manned missions v. robotic missions.  At a time when I'd just finished Scott Kelly's autobiography which definitely talked about the downsides of space travel this seemed very apposite!

More detailed write ups of this event can be found if you read back through @Space_Lectures tweets and also on Collect Space. The talk, and the chance to briefly meet McCandless were brilliant and the deficiencies here are all mine.  Perhaps I was just overcome by winning in the raffle this time and then getting a wonderful piece of art signed (as shown in the image!)

I can't wait for the next event in March!

Meeting a space legend in Norwich

Helen Sharman at the Norwich Science Festival, Norwich Cathedral. October 2017.

Having had a hint of what a great speaker Helen Sharman is at the recent New Scientist Live event I was very excited about this event, and it was heart warming to see that the people of Norwich, Norfolk and far beyond also felt the same.  Norwich Cathedral's main space was full the on the afternoon of Dr Sharman's talk.

Dr Sharman spoke for 45 minutes about her career as a scientist and her time as an astronaut, and this was a brilliant talk taking a different tack than many of the other space talks that I've heard - this one was very much about the science involved.

This wasn't just about the science Dr Sharman undertook in space (more of this later) but about the importance of science in getting to space, in surviving in space and also how science will let us explore further in space.  Linking everything back in this was really inspiring and gave a real insight into how earth based science really does have implications for space.

The parts I found most interesting however was when Dr Sharman talked about the experiments she undertook on MIR regarding plants and seeds. Although she was only there for 8 days it was enough time to see how roots grow and seeds germinate. All well and good and at this point it looked like growing food in space would be possible. Indeed I thought that this was the case as we've seen astronauts on ISS grow lettuce and flowers.  I didn't know that as yet it hasn't proved possibly to actually grow fruit or vegetables, and that as yet no one is actually sure why, although there are theories.  This inability to produce food has great implications for long duration missions to other planets where regular resupply deliveries won't be possible.

After a great question and answer session, Mr Norfolkbookworm and I were lucky enough to have the chance to meet Dr Sharman and talk with her for a few minutes.  I had another question about the science she undertook on MIR as I was interested if she'd seen practical applications of any of her experiments back here on earth. I wasn't aware that due to the nature of her mission (and the lack of money) she wasn't able to take her 'own' experiments and was just helping the Russians with theirs.

This was a wonderful afternoon, and although the cathedral was packed and we were very much in the middle of the audience the great PA system and large screens relaying the talk meant that we didn't miss a thing. Here's hoping Norwich starts to get the same reputation as Pontefract for welcoming astronauts and we become a regular stopping off place for space travellers!

Unexpected astronaut encounters

New Scientist Live, ExCeL Centre, London. September 2017.

Through being in the right place at the right time I made an unexpected trip to the Thursday of the 2017 New Scientist Live (sorry Natalie - hope you had a productive day in the office!)

The highlight of going on this day was that astronauts Tim Peake, Helen Sharman and Al Worden were headline speakers and giving an hour long session.  Even getting to the theatre 30 minutes early for this I wasn't too near the front but this didn't matter as the stage was also shown on two large screens raised above the stage so you didn't miss anything.

The astronauts didn't give talks as such but were asked questions by various people - the host, Stephen Hawking, school children and each other - and this lead to some wonderfully relaxed chat that was nicely balanced between all three speakers (and kudos to the host who let the chat flow!).

The three talked a little of their missions and then a lot about the future of space flight and the debate whether we should go back to the moon or on to mars was fascinating as was the chat on who should go on whichever mission happens.

All three speakers had great stories to tell and also displayed a lot of humour, as ever I was very pleased to hear from a female astronaut and am very excited that Helen Sharman will be in Norwich in October so that I can hear more from her, and hopefully get to meet her in person.

After this talk I spent a lot of time walking around the show, talking to people from all sorts of science and technology backgrounds as well as listening to talks on a variety of topics. I was lucky enough to get to meet Al Worden later in the day and get him to sign a copy of his autobiography for me. I also met (and got a signed book) from Libby Jackson who is head of education at the UK Space Agency, played with robots, learned about gene manipulation and played on the science fun fair.

I've looked at the programme for New Scientist Live before and debated whether it is worth it and now I can categorically say yes and that I'm already looking for details of next year's show so that I can go again - and this time with more people, especially my nephew!

Armchair Astronaut event with Michael Foale

An Afternoon with retired astronaut Michael Foale.

While Tim Peake might be the first British astronaut but the first British-born male astronaut was Michael Foale and I was very excited to get the chance to meet him - this time a little closer to home in Milton Keynes rather than Pontefract.

It was a great afternoon with the event was split into three main parts. In the first hour Mike Foale spoke about his missions on the space shuttle and then on ISS - he talked us through his early life and how he became an astronaut and then aspects of each mission. There were lots of little anecdotes and film clips to bring everything together and it was fascinating listening. To be honest if the event had stopped there it would have been brilliant but it continued...

Part two was all about Foale's eventful time on the MIR space station exactly twenty years ago. This was at the start of American/Russian cooperation in space, at a time when the MIR space station was ageing and when the differences in approach from the two nations were at their most divergent.  A resupply ship, which was being docked to the space station manually, crashed into part of the MIR puncturing it and causing a slow depressurisation, loss of power and loss of control.

Even though I knew the outcome of this accident (spoiler alert - eventually all was fine) Foale's presentation was tense and dramatic - I don't remember seeing the actual footage of the moment the accident happened - and then his account of the slow saving of the the MIR showed just how much of the 'Right Stuff' astronauts still have.

After another short break there was a lovely long question and answer session which covered all areas of Foale's career, his thoughts on the future of space travel and also great advice for anyone looking to get into their dream career.

After all of this some of us had premium tickets which meant we got to stay a little longer, get an autograph and then chat more with Foale.

It was a lovely afternoon and so well organised by the Armchair Astronaut and very nice to catch up with other space friends.

Not a space oddity

An afternoon with Colonel Chris Hadfield, National Space Centre, Leicester. October 2016.

After the joys of meeting and hearing the Kelly brothers at the weekend we were on the road again to meet another astronaut - this time the Canadian Chris Hadfield.

We got to the National Space Centre in plenty of time and had a little look around before the event - yesterday however it was full of school children (all of whom seemed to be inspired and enjoying themselves) and so we let them explore and retreated to the quieter areas before heading into the Sir Patrick Moore planetarium for what had been advertised as a q&a with Chris Hadfield.

We were however thoroughly spoilt as we got a wonderful talk and slide show from Hadfield. he has a great sense of humour and this came through in the anecdotes he told and the slides he showed - from the space heroes he thought he'd emulate to the little boy sitting in a box pretending to fly! I'm not sure what the Space Centre team thought of his demonstrations of how water behaves however...

After the talk there was time for questions and again these were answered with great thoughtfulness. He made sure that the children in the audience got to speak as well and again deflected some of the more 'interesting' questions with great humour.

After the talk we also had tickets to the signing session and here we were really surprised and impressed.  Chris Hadfield wasn't sat behind a table just signing but was wandering around and really chatting to everyone who was getting a book signed.  Mum got to ask him about boredom - and again he said that you can't be bored in space (before adding that there are only boring people not boring things!) before signing her book, shaking her hand and giving her a hug. I'm not sure she's stopped smiling yet!

My question was something that occurred to me at the Kelly talk when they talked about their medical training as astronauts. I was reminded of this when Chris Hadfield took a break in signing to talk about his medical training - how would you give CPR in space with no gravity to hold the giver in place and apply the pressure.  Apparently there are two ways. Both people are strapped down, the giver by the thighs, so that the compressions can be given. The alternative is to put your feet on the ceiling and push down on to the unwell person.  After this I also got a handshake and hug so like mum I've also got a silly grin on my face.

This was a great afternoon, and it was so nice to find that Colonel Hadfield is as nice in person as he seems on screen and page. I'm now off to re-read his autobiography.

The 'Right Stuff'

Buzz Aldrin in Conversation with Brian Cox, The Science Museum, London. February 2016.

We didn't think we were going to get to this event as the day the tickets went on sale the Science Museum's website crashed and by the time I gained access all of the tickets were gone.  Talking with the museum's social media team on Twitter lead me to registering our continued interest on a waiting list and then two days before the event patience paid off and I got a call offering me the four tickets I wanted.

The drama continued as on the day of the event Mr Norfolkbookworm was poorly and this necessitated a huge change of plans, a mad dash to the train station and then an awkward cross country journey to London.  It was all worth it when I made it to St Pancras and met my brother-in-law and nephew. A very sad husband however as he is the original space-nut in the family.

On arriving at the museum we collected our tickets and then went to explore the space gallery, it wasn't too crowded at this point and we spent a lot of time looking at the exhibits and explaining to N about the Apollo program. We also spent some time watching the floating globe waving at Nanny and Grandad who are currently in Australia!

From here we went into the big gallery and looked at the trains, planes, cars and of course the Apollo 10 capsule.  After a short break for lunch we made our way to the IMAX gallery and waited until it was time to take our seats for the talk.  Buzz's children's book about Mars kept us occupied during this wait and the museum's free Wi-Fi helped us look things up to add more details to what we were reading.

Once we were in our seats we got comfortable and then out came Brian Cox and Buzz Aldrin:

The event was then a conversation between the two men and started with the first selfie in space aboard Gemini 12, then talked about the Apollo program and the moon landing then went on to Buzz's plans for colonisation and 'universal' space cooperation.

If I am being honest this wasn't the best astronaut event I have attended, Cox tried his hardest to moderate and to keep the talk suitable for the audience (about half children under 10 - which was brilliant!) but Aldrin was a little vague and rambling. I was very impressed with the behaviour of the children in the audience however - my nephew included - as everyone was very quiet and respectful. After the moderated session the audience got to ask questions and although N and I had one we sadly weren't picked to ask it.

After this came the book signing and it was run brilliantly, I think that the Science Museum have been taking lessons from Space Lectures, and very quickly we were in line to meet Buzz and we were allowed to ask him our question in person "how did the moon smell?" It was very noisy and we think the answer was 'terrible' but Buzz made really good eye contact with N and they seemed to really connect.

We all enjoyed the event and meeting the 2nd man to walk on the moon is something we will all remember, I had heard him speak before but hadn't got to meet him.  

Before we went to the talk however N posed in front of the Apollo 10 capsule in a real astronaut pose alongside his class mascot Jelly the Giraffe:

We'd also talked about space travel and N had decided he didn't want to go to Mars right now as the journey is 8 months long and he'd miss his birthday, however he did want to go and visit Tim Peake on the ISS. I tweeted this on the way home and incredibly Tim Peake noticed the tweet and liked it which just made an already magical day even more special.

Return to Flight

Space Lectures event with Colonel Eileen Collins, Pontefract. April 2015.

Once more Mr Norfolkbookworm and I did battle with the road network linking Norfolk to Yorkshire for the chance to meet another astronaut.  Unlike previous events this one was with a much more recent space flier and indeed the first female Space Shuttle pilot, and later commander.

For me this was as exciting as meeting the Apollo era astronauts. I'm a child of the shuttle era and did see the launch of STS-123 in March 2008.  Sadly this wasn't Col. Collins' flight but the experience will stay with me forever.

We went to the dinner on the Friday night and this was a nice chance to catch up with the people we've met at other events and to help fund raise for more events in the future but the really exciting thing for me is the Saturday lecture.

We were spoiled this time as Col. Collins talked for well over an hour, mainly about her flight as the commander of the first space flight after the Columbia accident.  The talk, and I can't call it a lecture because despite an audience of 300+ it did just feel like a cosy chat, included photos, videos and anecdotes. It was pitched just right for the audience with it being neither too technical nor too basic.

After the talk there was a chance for audience questions and again I was impressed with the thoroughness and honesty of the answers given.  Space sickness is often dismissed by astronauts but Collins admitted to 'stomach awareness' on her first flight and that she took medication to avoid this on her subsequent one.

I was lucky enough to ask a questions and it was along the lines of will there ever be an all female crew, and if it would be a good idea.  The answer was that there certainly is no reason why there shouldn't be (and that the female astronauts did play 'fantasy crews' where they made them all female) but that personally Collins would not want to be part of it.  Her reasons were two fold - she wouldn't want the media pressure that such an event would generate and also the fact that if anything (however small) went wrong it would always be blamed on the sex of the crew.

This last point was illustrated with an story from Collins' first flight - on which she was the pilot - a booster returned to earth after being jettisoned from the External Tank and hit a wave wrong as it splashed down which damaged it.  Although this had nothing at all to do with anything that anyone on the Shuttle could have done it was still jokingly put down to having a woman driver.

Now I am sure that this was just lighthearted banter but for me it highlights just how far women still have to come in every field of work. Again I appreciated Collins' honest answer.

After the talk we waited to get Collin's autograph and now I have another cherished piece of space memorabilia as Eileen  Collins signed my own photo of a space shuttle launch.

(this is an edited photo of a photo hence the poor quality)

We'll be back in Pontefract in October as Jim Lovell of Apollo 8 and 13 fame will be the guest speaker, but before then we've also got tickets to meet Alexi Leonov - the first man to complete a space walk.  It is shaping up to be another out of this world year!

Pontefract - we have a problem

Fred Haise (Space Lectures), Pontefract. October 2014.

Thanks to the world of Twitter letting me know about Space Lectures we are recently back from our third jaunt cross-country to Pontefract to meet another legend.

This time we were meeting Fred Haise who I think is probably the unluckiest man in the Apollo astronaut corps.  Haise should have been the 6th man to set foot on the moon but instead was on the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission.  Having escaped the threat of measles which saw his crew mate Mattingley bumped from the mission all looked to be going well.

Except after launch an engine behaved oddly and shut down (just in the nick of time as it nearly came off which would have caused many more - fatal - problems). After spending some time orbiting earth while the ground crew assessed the impact of the engine loss Apollo 13 was good to go to the moon.  Then 200 000 miles away from the earth, when the oxygen/hydrogen tanks were stirred there was an explosion which ultimately ended the mission to the moon and turned Apollo 13 into the tense tale of three men who had to hope nothing else went wrong so they could get home safely, and the ultimate irony - to do this they had to fly right around the moon!

Obviously as Fred Haise was talking to us this was a success but his bad luck didn't end there. After being the back up commander for Apollo 16 he was then due to command Apollo 19 - a mission that was scrapped due to funding cuts.

Fighting back from a serious plane crash (resulting in burns to 65% of his body) Haise returned to flight status and flew space shuttle Enterprise on 5 test flights in the earth's atmosphere but left the astronaut corps before the shuttle programme finally got to orbit.

Haise covered all of this in his talk and though out was, like the other astronauts we've seen in Pontefract, humble, amusing and very quick to praise the other 400 000 people involved in the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo missions who we rarely hear about.

I'm afraid that I just spend these talks star struck and don't remember huge details of them but there are fuller accounts on Collect Space and I have no doubt that blogger Space Kate will have a post up soon - she was name checked in the lecture by Haise as his first career choice was as a journalist and Kate was taking copious notes during the talk.

This time - for the first time - we also went to the dinner on Friday night and while Fred Haise only spoke for a few moments at this there was much more time to get an autograph and share a few words with him than the popular lectures allow.  Being outbid on two auction items and not winning either raffle were slight downers!

The two things I really will take away from this weekend:

1. Fred Haise holding a door in the hotel open for me (okay I had my hands full but I felt I should be laying down my coat for him to walk on a la Sir Walter Raleigh rather than him holding a door for me)
2. Fred Haise's look of total emotion as the lecture theatre of c.450 people gave him a standing ovation at the end of the event.

Oh and the blog title?  The school where the events are held had several tech failures during the talk, not least Fred Haise's headset microphone failing necessitating one of the Space Lecture's organisers having to remove it.  This was connected to Fred Haise's belt and it did look very funny from the audience, caused Haise to smile hugely and also for hecklers to call out that Haise needed to check it was only the microphone removed and not a wallet. I guess you had to be there....

We'll be heading back to Pontefract in April 2015 when the guest will be the first woman to pilot, and then to command, the space shuttle Cmdr Eileen Collins.  This news really made my inner feminist very happy :)

Out of this world in Pontefract (again)

An afternoon with an astronaut.

In better weather than last autumn Mr Norfolkbookworm and I once more made the cross country trip to Pontefract for the very special treat of listening to one of the Apollo era astronauts.

This time the guest speaker was T K (Ken) Mattingly and although not a moon-walker his story is just as interesting - if not more so!  Mattingly was scheduled to fly as the Command Module Pilot on Apollo 13 but (luckily?) due to his potential exposure to measles was bumped from the flight at the 11th hour.  Much of his talk was about how the behind the scenes teams worked to safely return the crew of Apollo 13 to earth and it was fabulous to hear all about the team work and seat-of-the-pants decisions that allowed this to happen.

Mattingly did get to fly to the moon on Apollo 16 two years later but this mission too was not without incident and even though I knew that this mission was a success I was still on the edge of my seat with suspense as Mattingly talked us through the problems.

I've always had as much, if not more, admiration for the Command Module Pilot as he was the guy left alone in lunar orbit while the other two landed.  Not only was he left solo - often out of contact with mission control, but should anything have happened on the moon's surface he would have been the one to have to come back alone, never knowing exactly what had happened to his crew mates.

As ever I could have sat for hours listening to Mattingly's stories but sadly there was no time to hear about his space walk conducted between the Earth and the moon or about his early shuttle test flights. I was hoping to ask him about the former in the q&a but I wasn't chosen this time but the other questions did give more insight into NASA at the time.

My favourite bit? Hard to pick. I'm torn between the stunned laughter as Mattingly described watching Earthrise from the moon as an erotic experience and his comments that while Gary Sinise did a good job of portraying him on screen he really didn't sulk enough!

After the talk however there was a chance to actually meet and speak briefly with Mattingly as he signed one of my most treasured possessions:

The dates for the next talk have been announced, but not the guest, but I already can't wait and I can't thank Space Lectures enough for organizing these events. See you in November!

A space sensation

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth - Chris Hadfield

I think that regular readers of my thoughts will realise that I have three main interests - reading, the theatre and manned space flight.  When two of these combine it is a real treat.

Commander Chris Hadfield was the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station during his nearly 6 months in space earlier in 2013. In that time his use of social media to share his experiences made him probably the best known astronaut since Neil Armstrong.

Just 6 months after his return to Earth, after spending the preceding 5 months in space, Hadfield has published his autobiography. I am guessing that perhaps he'd been working on it prior to flight as nothing about it feels rushed or incomplete, it is just a delight to read from cover to cover.

I've read a lot of astronaut (and cosmonaut) memoirs and this is easily in my top three.  Hadfield decided he wanted to be an astronaut in July 1969 as he watched Armstrong and Aldrin walk on the moon and set out in a very single minded fashion to make his dream come true.

However he is Canadian and despite this determination he seems unable to be nasty as he achieves his dream.he always comes across as a very nice person, Throughout the book recognises that he must have talent and ability but he remains humble and charts his mistakes clearly and gives tips for how he thinks a person should behave to get ahead and remain well liked.

The book doesn't contain too many technological details but I did learn a lot more about the other aspects of training, I also know more about going to the loo in space than I did before.  Hadfield drops tiny tidbits of gossip but never names names which just makes me want to read more, he is also far more open about his health problems before, during and after flight than I've ever known an astronaut be before.

If you only got interested in the space programme thanks to following @Cmdr_Hadfield you won't be disappointed in the book, and if like me you have a deeper interest I don't think you'll regret reading this book for moment.

Now if you'll excuse me I am off to haunt the website to see if I can meet Commander Hadfield when he is in the UK next month but I do urge you to watch his version of Space Oddity - the book tells you just how the video was made!