Flying from Shangri-La cover design

I’m very pleased to announce the front cover design for my upcoming book, Flying From Shangri-La. A few of you might recognise the style, which was designed by someone I met in 2014 whilst working Indonesia. Pasha Sirait was still a student at Bali International School when I encountered a painting he did of a Pilatus Porter, hanging in the Susi Air training centre in Pangandaran. As soon as I saw the painting, I just had to locate the artist and see if I could get a copy of it for myself. I loved the pop art style and the bold colours used. It didn’t take long to get hold of Pasha and he was delighted to make a framed canvas copy of the painting for me. He’d been following my blog for some time, which he says is what got him interested in aviation in the first place. Pasha made the original painting as a gift to Susi for letting him attend a work experience trip to Susi Air headquarters.

Fast forward ten years, and I’d just finished the original manuscript for my book and was considering who I could hire to design the cover. I’d lost touch with Pasha but it didn’t take me long to get back in contact with him. By now he was a helicopter pilot flying in Hawaii and is still an artist, focusing his jewellery brand Eleuthera. He was excited to work with me to create the cover you see here. I love the fact he’s now part of this story. It makes the book even more personal, knowing the cover was designed by someone I met during the time the book is written about. I think you’ll agree, Pasha’s done a fantastic job!

I’m currently waiting for the book to come back from type setting, after which I’ll know how many copies to get printed for an exclusive pre-release date print run. This will be a very limited print run to be released forward of the official release date of 28th September 2024 and initially, will only be offered to subscribers to this website. So if you’re not already subscribed, please do so below for future updates on when you’ll be able to order it.