Book review: There’s Always The Hills, by Cameron McNeish

There’s a scene in Christopher Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus – after Faustus has sold his soul to Mephistopheles but before he is forced to give it up – in which he is treated to a sort of pre-modern helicopter ride around planet Earth. First, he is taken to the top of Mount Olympus “in a chariot burning bright” to view the clouds, planets and stars, and then, “mounted... upon a dragon’s back, / That with his wings did part the subtle air, / He... is gone to prove cosmography, / That measures coasts and kingdoms of the earth.”