Eve Branson's life reads like a fast-paced adventure novel.

A classically trained ballet dancer, she appeared in racy West End productions, disguised herself as a boy to take glider lessons, enlisted in the Womens Royal Navy Service, and then embarked on a series of harrowing adventures as a Star Girl air hostess on the ill-fated British South American Airways. Though marrying the dashing ex-Cavalry officer, Edward Ted Branson, brought her down to earth to raise three children, Eve's quest for adventure never faltered.

After running several businesses, traveling the world, and doing global charity work, Eve is preparing to launch the first commercial space travelers to the edge of space in a Virgin Galactic mother ship that bears her name.

In this lively, absorbing memoir — part diary, part adventure story, part family history — Eve Branson's formidable energy propels the reader through an extraordinary life. Along the way, she divulges some of the unorthodox but effective trade secrets behind raising one of the world's most colourful entrepreneurs.