adventure adventures adversity aerial-combat aeroplanes africa africa-exploration-society africa-safari african-safari air-force airplane airplanes alexandria army author autobiographical autobiography aviation aviator biographical biography boarding-school boarding-school-experiences bomber-command bombers bombing bombing-raids brave bravery brazil british british-air-force 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 cows creativity danger daring desert determination dreams east-africa egypt england escapades escape escapism espionage excitement exciting exploration family famous-author famous-authors fighter-pilot fighter-planes flying flying-ace flying-officer friendship friendships funny global-perspective going-solo greece growing-up growth heroism historical history humor humorous iconic imagination imperialism independence independent india inspiration journey kenya life-changing life-experiences life-lessons literary literature london loneliness maturation mediterranean memoir memories middle-east military military-service mischief mischief-maker mischievous mombasa non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian norwegian-ancestry norwegian-campaign norwegian-family norwegian-heritage nostalgia occupation overcoming-fear p-40-curtiss-tomahawk p-40-kittyhawk p-40-tomahawk passion perseverance personal-growth pilot pilot-training piloting pilots plane-crashes planes raf raf-hornchurch raf-pilot raf-pilots raf-squadron raf-training recollections resilience roald-dahl royal-air-force royal-flying-corps royal-navy safari scandinavian second-world-war self-discovery social-commentary solo solo-flight solo-flying solo-travel south-america spies spitfire spy spy-stories storytelling success sudan survival suspense syria tanganyika tanzania tragedy transformation travel triumph true-story unconventional unique united-kingdom wanderlust war war-experience war-experiences war-hero war-memoir war-stories wartime wartime-experience wartime-experiences wartime-pilot wilderness wit world-war world-war-ii writer writing wwii young-adult youth