1q84 adventure adventures adversity aerial-combat africa african-safari air-force airplane airplanes alexandria alternate-reality anecdotes army author autobiographical autobiography aviation aviator battle biographical biography boarding-school bomber bomber-command bombers book-adaptation brave bravery britain british british-author british-culture british-empire british-literature cairo childhood childhood-dreams childhood-experiences childhood-memoir childhood-memories childrens-literature classic classic-literature colonialism coming-of-age courage courageous creativity crete cult danger daring desert destiny determination dreams dystopian east-africa engineer england english escapades escape escaping-danger escapism espionage excitement exploration family fantasy fearlessness fiction fighter-pilot fighter-pilots fighter-planes flying flying-ace flying-officer friendship friendships global-perspective going-solo greece growing-up growth haruki-murakami heroism historical history hitchhiking humor humorous humorous-anecdotes iconic identity imagination independence independent india inspiration japanese-literature journey kenya life-experiences life-lessons literary literature london loneliness longing loss love-for-aviation love-story mediterranean memoir memories metaphysical middle-east military military-service mind-control mischief missions mombasa mystery non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian norwegian-ancestry norwegian-heritage nostalgia p-40-curtiss-tomahawk p-40-tomahawk palestine parallel-universe 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 solo solo-flying solo-travel south-america spies spitfire spy spy-stories storytelling success sudan surreal survival suspense syria tanganyika tanzania tragedy transformation travel triumph true-story unconventional underground victory vintage-international 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