Travel: Book of the week
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Taking the Fear out of Flying (Updated edition, Robinson, pounds 6.99) by Maurice Yaffe
It turns out that 50 million people in Britain and America are afraid of flying. Worldwide, air traffic is about 10 per cent lower than it would be if fear of flying did not exist. Celebrities from Mohammed Ali to Evel Kineval have been terrified of flying (the latter claiming that he didn't want to give anyone the chance to kill him before he did it himself).
And all this in spite of the fact that you would need to take a scheduled flight every day for 2,500 years before it became likely that you would be involved in a plane crash - which, chances are, you would survive. Phrased another way, more people are kicked to death by donkeys each year than die in plane crashes.
Statistics, statistics. But will they make any difference to people who can't enjoy their holidays because of the flights beforehand and afterwards? That is the aim of this book, of which an updated edition has just been published.
The first challenge for any victim is to identify precisely what type of phobia they have. The next is to understand the principles of flight: if they understand all those strange noises, sensations and movements they will worry about them less (one useful thing to know: it is the wings that keep the plane in the air, not the engines).
There are also general sections on relaxation and worry-management. Finally - for the seriously phobic - there are sections on simulating flight conditions and on how to obtain professional help.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments