Crusader Fox King

[Dave Homewood]

I wonder if anyone has ever read this book, mentioned in the new book reviews in The Press, on the 27th of August 1955:

Crusader Fox King.
By Ian Mackersey.
Robert Hale. 189 pp.

Mr Mackersey has written an exciting story—his first novel—about a Crusader aircraft of Nicholson Airlines, which operates services between Australia and New Zealand. Over the Tasman bound for Harewood, Crusader Fox King loses a propeller blade which slices into the fuselage, kills the navigator, and cuts the rudder and elevator controls. When the port engine drops into the sea the pilot tries to reach Ohakea but has to make a forced landing in the Tararuas.

Mr Mackersey is a New Zealand journalist who now edits an English aeronautical magazine and is a pilot in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. His characters are not particularly well drawn, but the flying scenes, the conditions in the Tararuas, and the search for the survivors are most convincingly described.

[komata]

FWIW: At an unknown date after it's publication (but probably around 1961-1962), the book was made into a radio serial (number of episodes unknown), complete with radial-engine type sound effects, and broadcast on various New Zealand radio stations.

On that basis, the National Library of NZ might hold a copy in their sound archives.

[ZacYates]

Jul 14, 2022 19:55:27 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Mr Mackersey is a New Zealand journalist who now edits an English aeronautical magazine and is a pilot in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.

Forgive my ignorance, but is this the same Ian Mackersey who wrote books on Jean Batten and Charles Kingsford Smith?

[Dave Homewood]

Yes.

[ZacYates]

Thank you Dave.

[longforgan]

The book was turned into a play broadcast on 1ZB Sunday night theatre. I remember listening to it as a kid.

[flyinghilly]

I've only just noticed this post - being slow may be an age related thing.

Ian Mackersey lived in Mt Eden, Auckland and died in 2015 - I met him a couple of times and he was a very nice man.

His books were very well written and well received.

His reputation was such that the Smithsonian gave him access to all the archives on the Wright Brothers so he could write his book called the Wright Brothers. He told me that the Smithsonian never gave anyone access to the Wright Brothers diaries anymore. The book covers the feud between Orville and his sister Katherine. Apparently Katherine looked after Orville a lot and she ran off to get married so he didn't talk to her again for about 25 years. Clearly he though it was rude of her to leave hims.

Back to the topic in hand
The Book Crusader Fox King was published in 1955 and its hard to find a copy however it was re published in 1956 under the title Position Unknown. Its a novel about an aircraft crash in the south island.

www.ianmackersey.com/