1916-1990 20thcentury adventure adventures adversity aerial-combat africa african-safari air-force airplane airplanes alexandria anecdotes army author authors autobiografie autobiographical autobiography aviation aviator biographical biography boarding-school bomber bomber-command bombers book-adaptation boys brave bravery britain british british-author british-culture british-empire british-literature cairo childhood childhood-dreams childhood-experiences childhood-memories childhoodandyouth childrens-literature classic classic-literature colonialism coming-of-age courage courageous creativity crete danger daring descriptionandtravel desert determination dreams east-africa education(elementary) education(secondary) engineer england english englishauthors englishnovelists escapades escape escaping-danger escapism espionage excitement exploration family famous-author fighter-pilot fighter-pilots fighter-planes flying flying-ace flying-officer friendship friendships funny going-solo greece growing-up growth heroism historical history hitchhiking humor humorous humorous-anecdotes iconic imagination independence independent india inliterature inspiration journey jugend juvenileliterature kenya life-experiences life-lessons literary literature london loneliness longing loss love-for-aviation mannersandcustoms medicineinliterature mediterranean memoir memories middle-east military military-service mischief missions mombasa non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian nostalgia novelist novelists p-40-curtiss-tomahawk p-40-tomahawk palestine passion perseverance personal-growth pilot pilot-training piloting pilots planes raf raf-pilot raf-training relationships resilience roald roald-dahl royal-air-force royal-navy safari scandinavian second-world-war secondaryeducation self-discovery sociallifeandcustoms 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 unitedstates victory war war-experience war-experiences war-memoir war-stories wartime wartime-experiences wit witty world-war-ii writer writing wwii young-adult youth youthful-antics