Former cabin crew member Mike Lawson’s debut novel Winging It is a funny, heartfelt and gloriously familiar aviation romcom packed with trolley-dolly chaos, chosen family and galley gossip. We review the book and chat to the author about cabin crew life, love and leaving the trolley behind.
There are some books that make you laugh, that make you cry and some that leave you nodding along because you recognise every single character and every single anecdote.
Mike Lawson’s Winging It manages to do all of the above.
At the heart of the story is Callum, a cabin crew member trying to navigate love, heartbreak, friendship, family trauma, breakups, breakdowns and the emotional turbulence of simply trying to get through life, while spending half of it locked in a metal tube with hundreds of strangers.
And yes, there are plenty of moments that will have crew members howling with recognition. From “wagon dragons” like the formidable Ivy Walsh, to Bath & Body Works runs, from judging passengers as they board, to that sacred onboard rule – “No service will start until I’ve had a brew” – Lawson captures the ridiculous, exhausting, hilarious little rituals of crew life perfectly.
We’ve all known an Ivy Walsh. We’ve all flown with an overly camp Jason. We’ve all encountered a Danielle, a slide-blowing Trev, and a joined-at-the-hip couple like Nick and Dave. These characters feel less like fictional creations and more like people you’ve spent a day at 40,000 feet with.
But beneath the humour, Winging It has real heart.
Callum is not just dealing with the chaos of crew life; he’s also carrying around a plane load of emotional baggage. His lingering heartbreak over his breakup with Liam means his early days with Olly are both hopeful and terrifying as he tries to piece himself back together. Anyone who has ever tried to move on while still feeling broken will feel that sting.
Add this to the emotional complexity of his mum leaving, and it becomes clear why Callum guards himself so carefully. It gives the book a depth that lifts it beyond a light-hearted aviation romcom. Yes, it is funny. Yes, it is packed with crew humour. But it also understands abandonment, loneliness and the quiet fear of not being enough. Haven’t we all felt that?
Thankfully, Callum has Soumia.
Soumia is the kind of friend every crew member needs. Fierce, loyal, funny and full of love, she represents one of the best things about aviation: the family we choose in the mad world of aviation. Anyone who has worked in the industry knows that crew colleagues can become family. Soumia is exactly that — one of our aviation family members.
That is where Winging It really shines. It understands that cabin crew are not just serving tea and coffee with a smile. They are juggling a chaotic working life with the desperate attempt to maintain friendships, relationships and a home life that often has to fit around rosters, time zones, exhaustion and emotional whiplash.
Lawson writes this world with affection and authenticity. The crew-related details never feel forced or like window dressing. They feel lived-in, because they clearly are. There is humour in the absurdity, but also tenderness in the way the book portrays the people who make this strange little aviation world bearable.
For Confessions of a Trolley Dolly readers, Winging It will feel instantly familiar. It is camp, funny, emotional and full of characters who could easily be sitting next to you on the jumpseat. But it also has enough heart to catch you off guard.
Behind the laughs and the trolley-dolly chaos is a story about love, healing, friendship and learning that even when someone has left you out in the cold, there might still be people waiting to bring you back inside.
If you haven’t already got your copy, then you can order it here
We also sat down with the fabulous man behind Winging It, Mike Lawson, for a chat about how the book came about, his favourite character and whether writing the story has made him want to get back behind the trolley.
Tell us a little about the background behind Winging It. How long has it been in the works?
Like a delayed flight, it feels like it’s taken a hell of a long time to arrive here. But now I’ve arrived, the journey has been totally worth it. The response from reviewers has been more than I could ever have dreamed of. The book started with lots of ideas on sticky notes that I stuck to my wall. When there was no space left, I put them into an order that vaguely represented an outline of a novel. I wrote the first draft very quickly. I booked a caravan in the Ribble Valley and locked myself away for 14 days until I finished it. The editing part is what took months.
They say write what you know, and I think we’ve all been heartbroken at some point, and with my background as crew, I thought an airline made the perfect backdrop for a turbulent romcom.
Winging It is inspired by your 17 years working as cabin crew. Was there one particular flight, moment, or crew room conversation that first made you think: “This could be a book”?
It actually started way earlier than my career as crew, I just didn’t know it. My grandad used to take me to the viewing park as a kid; I was amazed at how the aircraft took off. I went on my first flight with Britannia when I was 6 or 7 and thought it was so glamorous – how wrong I was. But all these little interactions must have embedded themselves in the dark corners of my brain as they all feature in the book.
The book is a work of fiction, and of course, it has to be a little dramatic, otherwise it wouldn’t make a good story. But there is one particular ‘service’ incident from when I used to work at FlyGlobepan. We were somewhere over the Atlantic on a clapped out 767 giving out the meals when we realised there were no cutlery packs onboard, the passengers were eating sausage, mash and peas with a swizzle stick.
For the “self-loading freight” readers who have never worked as crew, what did you most want to capture about life behind the galley curtain?
I wanted to show the authenticity of crew life. The struggles during training, the partying down route, but most importantly, the crew community. Flying now is completely different to what flying was like twenty years ago. Rightly or wrongly, I think we had more fun. All the crew would take some alcohol from the bar for some ‘bus juice’ to the hotel. Now, the crew would be fired if they so much as sniffed a Pringle without paying. Times have changed, but I wanted to have some of that nostalgia whilst recognising just how tough the job is now.
It was unheard of to have drunk and disruptive passengers when I first started. Now they’re so frequent that I think the crew deserve medals. You’d look at your roster and think, ‘Oh no, a Friday night Ibiza’, but now it’s Turkey, Croatia, Egypt, I really feel for the crew.
Then there’s the Galley FM. We all love a good gossip in the rear galley, but I think social media has really blurred the lines of what’s acceptable banter and what’s just mean. I always remember flying with a senior who said, ‘We got up to so much back in my day, we just weren’t stupid enough to film it and put it online.’ That conversation made it into the book.
Aviation has long had a strong LGBTQ+ workforce and culture. Did you want the book to reflect that sense of community?
The airline in the book is a very small airline with just two aircraft, so it naturally has more of a community feel to it. The danger is that everyone knows each other’s business, and that’s absolutely highlighted in Winging It.
I wanted to focus on the positive aspects of our community, too; Winging It is filled with strong women who are amazing allies and the backbone of our fight for acceptance. Soumia is Callum’s best friend. She’s feisty, she’s funny, she’s strong, she’s the poster girl for every gay man’s straight best friend. You will love her.
How much of Tiny World Airlines is inspired by real airlines you’ve worked for or flown with?
My CV is like a graveyard of all the airlines that have gone bankrupt over the last 22 years. I’ve affectionately worked for all the ‘tin pot’ airlines, who remembers TorAir, Primera, and FlyGlobespan? I used to work at Small Planet Airlines, so you can see the influence there. Tiny World is long-haul and low cost, flying the oldest aircraft you can still find with wings to America. In that respect, it’s very much like FlyGlobespan.
Which character was the most fun to write — and which one gave you the most trouble?
Ivy Walsh was my absolute favourite to write. I think we’ve all flown with someone like Ivy; she’s the original dragon wagon. Feared by most crew members, she could make a junior member cry with just one scowl, but underneath that hard exterior, she has a heart of gold.
The biggest trouble I had was trying to choose names for my characters. I didn’t want to use any names of people whom I’ve flown with in the past, but when you’ve flown for 17 years, it’s impossible. I changed Ivy’s name at least five times.
What do you think cabin crew or indeed, general readers, will relate to most in Callum’s story?
I think everyone will be able to relate to Callum battling his way through the pitfalls of dating in the age of Grindr and Tinder, and both the joy and the trauma that come with it. It was so important to me that Callum would be someone the reader could see themselves being friends with and going for a drink with down Canal St. I think that comes across by Winging It, dealing with the themes of chosen family and the power of friendship, as well as being brave enough to dare to love again.
Without giving too much away, what is your favourite part of the book?
There is a chapter in the book where a character comes back. I don’t think the reader will see it coming. It was the very last chapter I wrote and put in after I’d finished the original draft. I sat sobbing at my laptop whilst I wrote it. But I also love the very last line. It’s simple, but the perfect ending.
Did writing the book make you feel nostalgic for flying, or did it remind you why you were ready to leave the trolley behind?
I will always look back on my career in the skies with such fond memories. I think age gives you the benefit of hindsight. I experienced so much and just didn’t appreciate it at the time. Now I can look back and think wow, I was 21 and being paid to go to New York.
Flying has given me such good friends for life, too, that I feel extremely blessed to have been on the right flight at the right time to meet them. As for going back to my trolley, I prefer to be a passenger these days; besides, after reading this book, I don’t think any airline would have me!
Were there any stories from your flying days that were too outrageous to include because readers might not believe them?
Absolutely. And those stories are best left in the Falkland Islands and Ascension Island with the penguins and turtles. Anyone who has worked on the Falklands airbridge contract from RAF Brize Norton will know exactly what I mean.
Finally, if Winging It had an in-flight announcement, what would it say to readers before take-off?
Get your tissues ready and fasten your seatbelts tight, you’re in for one hell of a ride!
© Confessions of a Trolley Dolly
