Wings of the Kite-Hawk is a set of linked journeys into the Australian landscape: its past and its present, its people and its half-remembered secrets. In each chapter, Nicolas Rothwell takes a precursor and follows him. His guides include famous explorers from the past - Leichhardt, Sturt, Strehlow and Giles - as well as artists, anthropologists, rodeo riders and even Hell's Angels. Vivid characters weave in and out of the story, inspiring journeys through different states of heart and mind: love, loss, friendship, fear.

This book, re-issued with a new introduction by renowned travel writer Pico Iyer and a new foreword by the author, is unlike any other written about inland Australia. As much fable as memoir, it resonates with strangeness and bitter-sweetness, with all the hidden patterns and suddenly revealed depths of life.

‘If the traveller's aim is to find wonders and treasures not before our eyes, that others have overlooked, then this is truly a hidden classic.’ —Pico Iyer, Introduction