19thcentury 20thcentury 21stcentury adult-life adventure adventures adventurous adversity aerial-combat aerial-warfare africa african-safari air-force airplane airplanes amundsens-life arctic-exploration army author authors auto-biography autobiographical autobiography aviation aviator beloved-books biographical biography boarding-house 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 desert determination discoveryandexploration dreams east-africa egypt england english entertaining escapades escape escapism excitement exhibitions exploration family famous-authors fighter-pilot fighter-planes flying flying-ace flying-tigers foreignrelations friendship friendships funny german going-solo greece growing-up growth heroism historical history hitchhiking humor humorous iconic imagination independence independent india inspiration journey kenya life-changing life-experiences life-lessons literary literature london loneliness longing mediterranean memoir memories middle-east military military-service mischief missions mombasa non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian-heritage norwegianfiction nostalgia occupation overcoming-fear p-40-curtiss-tomahawk p-40-tomahawk painting passion perseverance personal-growth pilot pilot-training piloting pilots plane-crashes planes polar-conquest polar-expedition polar-exploration-history polar-hero polar-navigation prolific-author race-to-the-pole raf raf-pilot raf-training resilience risk roald-dahl royal-air-force royal-navy safari scandinavian second-world-war self-discovery social-commentary solitary solo solo-travel south-africa south-america south-pole spies spitfire spy spy-stories storytelling success sudan survival syria tales tanganyika tanzania tragedy transformation travel triumph true-story unconventional unique vivid-storytelling wanderlust war war-experience war-experiences war-memoir war-stories wartime wartime-experiences wild-imagination wit world-war world-war-ii writer writing wwii young-adult youth