Yet, having been to new heights, he went down a rabbit hole.
Born in a rural Soviet Union collective farm in 1934 to a carpenter/bricklayer father and milkmaid mother Yuri was always going places. Intelligent and possessed of a winning personality Yuri progressed through the educational system, became an air cadet and joined a flying club. First glimpse of the rabbit hole.
His aptitude as a pilot led him to be promoted to Senior Lieutenant and he was one of twenty pilots inducted into the search for the man who would be first into space. The selection course was tough and when anonymously asked who they thought should be 'the one' among them, seventeen voted for Yuri.
So Yuri it was who flew into space for one hour and forty-eight minutes on 21st April 1961 in a metal ball, a silent Soviet era video is here and celebrates how Yuri becomes the first man in space
On landing Yuri became an instant hero both in the Soviet Union and worldwide, his engaging smile shone out from TV screens, newspapers and postage stamps.
Fame for Yuri had the same effect it has had on many thrust into the limelight. The rabbit hole opened when the vodka bottles opened.
The Soviet authorities, conscious of his propaganda value, forbade him from any further space flight in 1967 after the crash-landing of Soyuz 1, (for which Gagarin was back-up crew) and the death of its cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, a close friend of Gagarin.
After qualifying as a fighter pilot Gagarin died on March 27th 1968 when a routine flight ended in disaster, killing both Yuri and his flight trainer Vladimir Seryogin.
The crash has been grist to the conspiracy-mill ever since.
In 'Starman', by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony, Yuri Gagarin has a written testament as valuable as any of the many medals and awards that he has received over the decades and shows how even the man who flew higher than anybody else can fall down a rabbit hole.
As usual take the ISBN, 9781408815540, to your local bookshop, its in mine!
