1939-1945 adventure adventures adversity aerial-combat africa african-safari air-force airplane airplanes alexandria anecdotes antiquities architecture army author autobiographical autobiography aviation aviator battle biographical biography boarding-school bomber bomber-command bombers book-adaptation brave bravery britain british british-author british-culture british-empire british-literature cairo childhood childhood-dreams childhood-experiences childhood-memoir childhood-memories childrens-literature classic classic-literature colonialism coming-of-age congresses courage courageous cows creativity dahl danger daring desert determination dreams east-africa engineer england escapades escape escaping-danger escapism espionage excavations(archaeology) excitement expedition exploration family famous-author fearlessness fighter-pilot fighter-pilots fighter-planes flying flying-ace flying-officer friendship friendships funny global-perspective going-solo greece growing-up growth heroism historical history hitchhiking humor humorous humorous-anecdotes iconic imagination independence independent india inspiration journey kenya life-experiences life-lessons literary literature london loneliness longing loss love-for-aviation mediterranean memoir memories methodology middle-east military military-service minoan minoans mischief missions mombasa non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian norwegian-ancestry norwegian-heritage nostalgia novelist p-40-curtiss-tomahawk p-40-tomahawk palaceofknossos(knossos) palaces palestine passion perseverance personal-growth pilot pilot-training piloting pilots planes pottery raf raf-pilot raf-training relationships resilience roald-dahl royal-air-force royal-navy safari scandinavian second-world-war self-discovery solo solo-flying solo-travel south-america spies spitfire spy spy-stories storytelling success sudan survival suspense syria tanganyika tanzania tragedy transformation travel triumph true-story unconventional undergroundmovements victory wanderlust war war-experience war-experiences war-memoir war-stories wartime wartime-experiences wit witty world-war-ii worldwar writer writing wwii young-adult youth youthful-antics