The Wrong Side of the Sky is the debut novel by English author Gavin Lyall, first published in 1961.

Jack Clay, an ex-Royal Air Force military transport makes a threadbare living flying charter cargo flights of dubious legitimacy around the Mediterranean and other parts of Europe in an old Douglas DC-3.

His dreams of having his own aeroplane and own charter company are rapidly fading due to age and lack of money, but at least he is flying.

While in Athens, Greece he has a chance encounter with an old wartime friend and rival pilot, Ken Kitson, when the latter lands in a luxurious private Piaggio P.166.

Wodehouse singled it out for special praise:“Terrific: when better novels of suspense are written, lead me to them.”[2]