MacDonald Harris wrote the Balloonist in the 1970s and it was published with huge acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic in 1976. Indeed it was runner-up in the National Book Award fiction prize that year. Then, in the 1980s, it mysteriously disappeared and would have remained hidden unless Philip Pullman had not sung the praises of both the book and the work of the author in The Observer back in 2008. The novel is set in 1897 when three people attempt, for the first time, to fly to the North Pole in a balloon, and return. The story is a deliciously entertaining mix of adventure, sexual intrigue, philosophy and science. AUTHOR: MacDonald Harris was the pseudonym of Donald Heiney. He wrote 16 novels and 1 book on sailing (he was in the US Navy during WW2) and lived for most of his life in Newport, California. In 1982 he received a literature award from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for his entire body of work. He died in 1993 aged 71.