Get a signed copy of Aiming High, the biography of ski pioneer Erna Low, who was born in Vienna in 1909 and was instrumental in starting what has become a multimillion pound industry: the ski holiday business. Erna, an Austrian javelin champion and handball player, soon branched out into parties for the young elite at country houses around Britain, becoming something of a matchmaker for the 20- and 30-somethings who flocked to her events year after year.
When war came to Europe, she joined the BBC, listening in on German broadcasts to help the Allied effort. After normality had been restored, she grasped the opportunity offered by rising standards of living and grew her eponymous company into a leading travel company in the market by the 1960s, introducing many holiday destinations and concepts to the British market.