'Colonel' Cody and the flying cathedral - Garry Jenkins

Part Barnum, part Baron Munchausen, part Orville Wright, Cody cut one of the most colourful and controversial figures of his age. During his early years in America, he worked the same cattle trails as Buffalo Bill, played the same Dodge City roulette tables as Wyatt Earp and competed with the legendary Annie Oakley for the title of King of the Wild West sharpshooters. In Britain, with his wife and her two sons he formed the country's foremost Wild West family, but his fame reached its apex when he pioneered powered flight. A passionate kite-builder, he became official inventor to the army's Balloon Factory at Farnborough. Over the following years he fought an increasingly bitter battle with the Army and his better funded rivals to become the first man to fly in England. In the wake of his pioneering flight he became what VANITY FAIR called 'the British public's chief and best showman of flight.'
Cody's end was typically spectacular. When his new seaplane snapped in half in midair, sending him falling 500 feet to his death, the sense of shock was felt throughout England. King George V summed up the place Cody had gained in the nation's affections when he insisted that he be given a full military funeral - the first civilian to be buried in the Army cemetery at Aldershot.

Garry Jenkins is author of four other bestselling books, including the highly acclaimed THE BEAUTIFUL TEAM, about Brazilian football.