Up Up and Away

An airline romance, an irresistible attraction, an illicit affair.

Kay Martin has always wanted to become an air hostess, her ambition is realized when she is accepted for hostess training by Celtic Airways. She meets and falls in love with handsome, sardonic Captain Graham Pender and only then discovers he’s married.

Their passionate love affair comes to an end when Kay’s letter, addressed to the pilots’ lounge, is sent on to Graham’s home and his wife opens it.

Some weeks later they meet by accident in the crew hotel in New York and get a chance to straighten things out between them. But to Kay’s sorrow Graham is going out to Karachi to do a spell of winter duty with Eastline Airways and while he still loves her he has decided to remain with his wife for the sake of their children.

Although they separate and go their different ways they can’t stop thinking and wanting each other; in the end Graham decides to cut short his duty in Karachi and return to Ireland. But on his last flight from Bombay to Colombo a storm blows up. As he grapples with the controls of the B707 In the worsening Monsoon weather, he is horrified to find his Instrument Landing System is faulty and worse is to come, an attack of migraine has badly distorted his vision.

Up Up and Away is a gripping, behind the scenes, novel of life in an Irish airline – an enthralling story of hostesses and pilots with their heads and hearts in the clouds and their emotions in a constant state of flux between taking-off and landing.

‘Since Tuomey was herself an air hostess, we can only presume that nude swims with devastatingly attractive pilots are the order of the day. Sexy and romantic this is the perfect holiday read.’ - Image Magazine

‘A gripping behind the scenes peek at the glamorous world of air hostesses and pilots – you won’t notice time passing with this one.’ - Woman’s Way

‘A good all-round romance in mile-high territory.’ - RTE Guide

About the Author

Nesta Tuomey is the author of two novels: Up Up and Away, originally published by Emperor Publishing, and Like One of the Family, published by Mount Eagle Publications. She has worked in the bank and as an air hostess with Aer Lingus.. Her plays and short stories have been broadcast by BBC and RTE. A winner of the John Power Short Story Award at Listowel and the Image Oil of Ulay Short Story Competition, her short stories have also been published widely in magazines. Nesta Tuomey’s one-act play Whose Baby won the O.Z. Whitehead Play Competition in 1996.

She lives in Dundrum, Dublin, Ireland.