“IT’S a mixture of life-changing achievement, interwoven with someone succeeding against the odds, telling a story which hasn’t been told before, part autobiography, part therapy and how I overcame my phobias. How often do you see that genre?”

In these words author Richard O Smith described his newest title, The Man with his Head in the Clouds, a tale of the first English balloonist James Sadler, during an exclusive talk at the Swindon Festival of Literature yesterday.

Speaking on day eight of the festival, Richard entertained the audience at the Old Town-based Arts centre with tales of growing up in Boston, Lincolnshire, his therapy to overcome a fear of heights and his research into Sadler.

Pastry chef turned pioneer of the balloon age James Sadler became the first English aeronaut in 1784 when he took off from Christ Church meadow in Oxford, and unknowingly influenced Richard more than 200 years later to overcome his chronic fear of heights.

The writer, who lives in Oxford, is known as the first Englishman to be diagnosed with both acrophobia (fear of heights) and bathmophobia (irrational fear of stairs).

He drew laughs from the audience when he described James Sadler’s abortive balloon missions where he flew off in gale force winds and crashed as like “an 18th century version of Jackass the movie.”

As part of his research for the book he underwent therapy to deal with the problem which he tested when he recreated James Sadler’s iconic first successful balloon flight in Oxford.

He said: “If you look down you can see the ground hundreds of metres below, if you look up you can only see flames. It’s at times horrifying and mesmerising.”

Richard’s unique take on history brought life to the balloon era including his reveal of the first passengers aboard a hot air balloon.

“The first flight they put a sheep, a duck and a cock on a balloon to see if people could survive at that altitude,” he said. “They found to their amazement that people could, but I imagine they had a lot of mess to clear up when they got back.”

The 50-year-old Chortle comedy award winner and writer for Radio 4’s the Now Show, who describes himself as “a delightfully British eccentric”, has made a name for himself revealing the quirky side to British life and history.

Smith praised the Swindon audience for their intelligence and jokingly denied he was the one who likened Swindon to the moon in terms of its lack of atmosphere. The festival runs until May 16. Visit swindonfestivalofliterature.co.uk or to book tickets call 01793 524481.