Burning the Days

'It is years since I read a sharper, more arresting autobiography' Spectator 'A stylish and moving account of his various incarnations as a fighter pilot, rock climber, screenwriter and novelist ... written in the heroic language of an American memoir' New Statesman 'He has written three books that everyone should read before they die: A Sport and a Pastime, Light Years and his recollections, Burning the Days' Independent 'A masterwork of memory, deeply impressive and deeply moving' Time Out

`The true chronicler of my life, a tall, soft-looking man with watery eyes, came up to me at the gathering and said, as if he had been waiting a long time to tell me, that he knew everything. I had never seen him before.' This is the brilliant memoir of a man who starts out in Manhattan and comes of age in the skies over Korea, before emerging as one of America's finest authors in the New York of the 1960s. Burning the Days showcases Salter's uniquely beautiful style with some of the most evocative pages about flying ever written, together with portraits of the actors, directors and authors who later influenced him. It is an unforgettable book about passion, ambition and what it means to live and to write.