adult-life adventure adventures adventurous adversity aerial-combat aerial-warfare africa africa-safari african african-safari air-combat air-force airplane airplanes army author auto-biography autobiographical autobiography aviation aviator beloved-books biographical biography boarding-school bomber-pilot bombers bravery british british-author british-culture british-empire british-history british-literature captivating career challenges childhood childhood-dreams childhood-experiences childhood-memories childhoood childrens-literature chocolate classic colonialism coming-of-age comradeship courage courageous creativity danger danish daring desert determination dreams east-africa eccentric egypt enemy england entertaining escapades escape escapism excitement exploration family famous-authors fascinating fighter-pilot fighter-planes flying flying-ace flying-aces flying-tigers friendship friendships funny german going-solo greece growing-up growth heroism historical history hitchhiking humor humorous imagination independence independent india inspiration inspiring journey kenya life-changing life-experiences life-lessons literary literature london loneliness longing mediterranean memoir memories middle-east migration military military-service mining mischief mombasa non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian norwegian-ancestry norwegian-heritage nostalgia nostalgic novel occupation p-40-curtiss-tomahawk p-40-tomahawk passion perseverance personal-growth pilot pilot-training piloting pilots planes prolific-author raf raf-pilot raf-training reflect remarkable 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-flying solo-travel south-africa south-america south-sudan spies spitfire spy spy-stories storytelling success sudan survival syria tales tanganyika tanzania tragedy transformation travel triumph true-story unconventional vivid-storytelling wanderlust war war-experience war-experiences war-memoir war-stories wartime wartime-experiences wild-imagination wit world-war-ii worldwarii writer writing wwii young-adult young-readers youth