adventure adventures adversity aerial-combat africa africa-exploration-society african african-exploration african-safari air-force aircraft airplane airplanes ambition anecdotes army author auto-biography autobiographical autobiography aviation aviator biographical biography boarding-house boarding-school bomber bomber-command bombers bravery brazil british british-author british-culture british-empire british-literature british-society cairo challenges childhood childhood-dreams childhood-experiences childhood-memories childrens-literature classic classic-literature colonial-service colonialism coming-of-age courage courageous cows creativity crete danger daring denmark derring-do desert determination dreams east-africa eccentric elfacombe england entertaining escapades escape escapism excitement exciting exploration family famous-authors fighter-pilot fighter-planes flying flying-ace friendship friendships funny going-solo greece growing-up growth heartwarming heroism historical history hitchhiking humor humorous iconic imagination imperial-airways imperialism independence independent india inspiration isolation journey kenya life-experiences life-lessons literary literature london loneliness love-for-aviation mediterranean memoir memoirs memories middle-east military military-service mischief mischief-maker mischief-makers mischievous mombasa non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian norwegian-ancestry norwegian-heritage nostalgia nostalgic p-40-tomahawk parents passion perseverance personal-growth pilot pilot-training piloting pilots planes prolific-author raf raf-pilot raf-training relationships resilience risk roald-dahl royal-air-force royal-flying-corps royal-navy safari scandinavian second-world-war self-discovery shell shell-oil solo solo-expedition solo-flying solo-travel south-america south-sudan spies spitfire spy storyteller storytelling success sudan survival suspense syria tanganyika tanzania tragedy transformation travel triumph true-story unconventional united-kingdom war war-experience war-experiences war-memoir war-stories wartime wartime-experience wartime-experiences wartime-pilot wild-imagination wit world-war-ii writer writing wwii young-adult youth