1939-1945 1944topresent 20thcenturyfrenchhistory adult-life adventure adventures adventurous adversity aerial-combat aerial-warfare africa african-safari air-force airplane airplanes antisemitism army author auto-biography autobiographical autobiography aviation aviator beloved-books biographical biography boarding-house boarding-school brave bravery british british-author british-culture british-empire british-literature british-society campaigns challenges childhood childhood-dreams childhood-memories childhoood childrens-literature classic colonialism coming-of-age courage courageous creativity danger daring determination dreams east-africa egypt england entertaining escapades escape escapism ethnic europe europeantheater excitement exploration family famous-authors fighter-pilot fighter-planes flying flying-ace flying-tigers fourth friendship friendships funny gener general generals german going-solo greece growing-up growth heroism historical history hitchhiking holocaust humor humorous iconic imagination independence independent india individualbattles inspiration invasion jewishhistory journey kenya life-changing life-experiences life-lessons literary literature london longing mediterranean memoir memories middle-east military military-service miscellaneous miscellaneousfrenchhistory miscellaneousromancatholicism mischief mombasa non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian norwegian-heritage nostalgia overcoming-fear p-40-curtiss-tomahawk p-40-tomahawk papacy papalhistory passion perseverance personal-growth pilot pilot-training piloting pilots plane-crashes planes prolific-author raf raf-pilot resilience resistance risk roald-dahl royal-air-force royal-navy safari second-world-war self-discovery social-commentary solitary solo solo-flying solo-travel south-africa spies spitfire spy spy-stories storytelling success sudan survival syria tales tanganyika tanzania tragedy transformation travel triumph true-story unconventional unique vaticancity vichygovernment vivid-storytelling wanderlust war war-experience war-experiences war-memoir war-stories wartime wartime-experiences wild-imagination wit world-war world-war-ii worldwari worldwarii writer writing wwii young-adult youth