20thcentury adult-life adventure adventures adventurous adversity aerial-combat africa african african-safari air-force airplane airplanes army art author auto-biography autobiographical autobiography aviation aviator beloved-books biographical biography boarding-school bombers brave bravery british british-author british-culture british-empire british-literature british-society challenges childhood childhood-dreams childhood-experiences childhood-memories childhoood childrens-literature classic colonialism coming-of-age courage courageous creativity danger daring descriptionandtravel determination dreams east east-africa economicconditions education egypt england english entertaining escapades escape escapism etc excitement exploration family famous-authors fiction fighter-pilot fighter-planes flying flying-ace flying-tigers friendship friendships funny general german going-solo greatbritain greece growing-up growth heroism historical history hitchhiking humor humorous iconic imagination independence independent india islam journey kenyan life-changing life-experiences life-lessons literary literature london longing maasai(africanpeople) mediterranean memoir memories middle-east military military-service mischief missions mombasa nairobi nationalism non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian nostalgia occupation overcoming-fear p-40-curtiss-tomahawk passion perseverance personal-growth pilot pilot-training piloting pilots plane-crashes planes politicsandgovernment prolific-author raf raf-pilot refugees religion resilience risk roald-dahl royal-air-force royal-navy safari scandinavian second-world-war self-discovery sexdiscriminationagainstwomen social-commentary socialaspects socialconditions sociallifeandcustoms socialsciences solitary solo solo-travel south-africa spies spitfire spy spy-stories storytelling success sudan survival syria tales tanganyika tanzania tragedy transformation travel triumph true-story turkana(africanpeople) unconventional unique unitedstates vivid-storytelling wanderlust war war-experience war-experiences war-memoir war-stories wartime wartime-experiences wild-imagination wit women world-war world-war-ii writer writing wwii young-adult youth