It was for Alberto Santos-Dumont, who could not check his pocket watch because he was using both hands to steer a balloon, that Louis Cartier, in 1901, created the first wristwatch.

A renowned playboy, dining at Maxim's nightly and setting new styles in fashion, he at first frequently crashed his yellow silk airships into the trees of wealthy friends, such as the Rothschilds - who would send up champagne lunches for him to enjoy during repairs. But soon he was winning prestigious prizes and being hailed as "the conqueror of the air".

Internationally acclaimed as the first man to fly, he was feted for several years in Europe and America (where he was received at the White House by Teddy Roosevelt) before learning that the Wright brothers, whose early efforts had been discounted, had actually preceded him.

Man Flies tells the tragic, glamorous story of his career, and later illness, and of how this brilliant, colourful and eccentric pioneer slipped through the cracks of aviation history while his inventions and imagination continue to inspire it.