1950s action action-packed adrenaline adrenaline-rush adventure adventures aerial-combat aerial-maneuvers aerial-warfare africa african-safari air-combat air-force aircraft airplane airplanes ambition american-literature atmospheric author autobiography aviation aviators beautiful-prose betrayal biographical biography boarding-school bravery british british-author british-empire british-literature brotherhood camaraderie character-driven character-study childhood childhood-dreams childhood-memories colonialism combat coming-of-age competition comradeship conflict courage creativity danger dangerous-missions death destiny determination drama dreams duty east-africa emotional endurance england escapades escape escapism espionage excitement exhilarating exhilaration existential existentialism exploration family fate fear fiction fighter-jets fighter-pilots fighter-planes flying flying-ace friendship friendships going-solo greece grief gripping heroism historical honor humor humorous hunters imagination independence independent india intense intensity introspection introspective james james-salter journey kenya korean-war literary literary-fiction literature london loss love love-affairs love-triangle loyalty masculinity memoir middle-east military military-fiction military-service mischief morality mortality non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian nostalgia novel obsession passion perseverance personal-growth pilot pilots planes poetic post-war power-dynamics psychological pursuit raf raf-pilot redemption relationships resilience risk risk-taking rivalries rivalry roald-dahl romance royal-air-force sacrifice safari salter second-world-war self-discovery spies spitfire spy storytelling strategy struggle success survival suspense suspenseful tanganyika tanzania teamwork tension the-hunters thrill thrill-seeking thriller thrilling tragedy trauma travel triumph true-story unconventional victory vietnam vietnam-war vivid-imagery war war-experiences war-memoir war-stories wartime wartime-experiences world-war-ii writer writing wwii young-adult youth