Martagon, an engineer by profession and a loner by nature, falls head over heels in love for the very first time. He is masterminding the construction of an airport in Provence, exploiting his cutting-edge expertise in glass technology.

The land on which the airport is built belonged to a feuding brother and sister, and it is Marina, the sister, who throws the detached and rational Martagon so thoroughly off balance. Marina is beautiful, flamboyant and completely irresistible. He takes risks to be with her, losing his way both professionally and personally, and ends up questioning values he once took for granted.

Written with unusual urgency and perception about the relations between men and women, FLIGHT is ultimately a story of loss. It’s an international novel of the new Europe, and the need to “belong” somewhere. It’s also about passionate love, morality, self-discovery, the business world – and flying too close to the wind.

Victoria Glendinning is the award-winning biographer of Trollope, Elizabeth Bowen, Edith Sitwell, Vita Sackville-West and Jonathan Swift. Her previous novels, THE GROWN-UPS and ELECTRICITY, were critical and commercial successes.