Finding Jean Batten

New Zealand writer Ian Mackersey’s 1991 biography of aviatrix Jean Batten is reviewed by Joseph May on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Readers Blog page. “In [Jean Batten: Garbo of the Skies, Mackersey] unlocked the mystery of Jean’s disappearance for a few years later in her life, indeed she had passed away. It was Mackersey who found the apartment where she had last lived, and where she died, as well as where she was buried — something that the governments of Spain and New Zealand had failed to do. That she died alone and on the opposite side of the planet from her home country she and her mother abandoned so many decades before her death is tragic — but is explained understandably and with insight by the author. Similarly, so he illustrates Jean’s life and accomplishments.” Amongst other aviation biographies, Mackersey wrote, The Wright Brothers: The Remarkable Story of the Aviation Pioneers who Changed the World, which was published in 23.