adult-life adventure adventures adventurous adversity aerial-combat aerial-warfare africa africa-safari air-combat air-force airplane airplanes army author auto-biography autobiographical autobiography aviation aviator beloved-books biographical biography boarding-house boarding-life boarding-school bombers bombing brave bravery british british-air-force british-author british-culture british-empire british-literature british-society challenges childhood childhood-dreams childhood-memories childhoood childrens-literature classic colonialism coming-of-age courage courageous creativity danger daring determination dreams east-africa egypt enemy england english entertaining escapades escape escapism excitement exploration family famous-authors fighter-pilot fighter-planes flying flying-ace flying-tigers friendship friendships funny german going-solo greece growing-up growth heroism historical history hitchhiking humor humorous iconic imagination independence independent india inspiration inspiring journey kenya life-changing life-experiences life-lessons literary literature london loneliness longing malaria mau-mau-uprising mediterranean memoir memoirist memories middle-east migration military military-service mischief mombasa non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian norwegian-heritage nostalgia occupation overcoming-fear p-40-curtiss-tomahawk p-40-tomahawk passion perseverance persistence personal-growth pilot pilot-training piloting pilots plane-crashes planes prolific-author raf raf-pilot raf-squadron raf-training real-life-stories recollections reflect resilience risk roald-dahl royal-air-force royal-navy royal-norwegian-air-force safari scandinavian second-world-war self-discovery social-commentary solitary solo solo-flight solo-flying solo-travel south-africa south-america spies spitfire spy spy-stories storytelling success sudan survival syria tales tanganyika tanzania tragedy transformation travel triumph true-story unconventional unique vivid-storytelling wanderlust war war-experience war-experiences war-memoir war-stories wartime wartime-experiences wild-imagination wit world-war world-war-ii worldwarii writer writing wwii young-adult young-readers youth