adventure adventures adventurous adversity aerial-combat africa african-safari air-force airplane airplanes alexandria anecdotes army author autobiographical autobiography aviation aviator battle beloved-books biographical biography boarding-school bomber bomber-command bombers book-adaptation brave bravery britain british british-author british-culture british-empire british-history british-literature cairo career childhood childhood-dreams childhood-experiences childhood-memoir childhood-memories childrens-literature classic classic-literature colonialism coming-of-age comradeship courage courageous creativity crete dahl danger danish daring desert desert-war determination dreams east-africa engineer england escapades escape escaping-danger escapism espionage excitement expedition exploration family fascinating fearlessness fighter-pilot fighter-pilots fighter-planes flying flying-ace flying-aces flying-officer flying-tigers 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 libya life-experiences life-lessons literary literature london loneliness longing loss love-for-aviation mediterranean memoir memories middle-east military military-service mischief missions mombasa non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian norwegian-air-force norwegian-ancestry norwegian-heritage nostalgia novelist 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-dahl royal-air-force royal-navy safari scandinavian second-world-war self-discovery shell solitary solo solo-flying solo-travel south-america south-sudan spies spitfire spy spy-stories storytelling success sudan survival suspense syria tanganyika tanzania tragedy transformation travel triumph true-story unconventional 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