adult-life adventure adventures adventures-in-africa. adventurous adversity aerial-combat aerial-warfare africa african-safari air-force airplane airplanes army author auto-biography autobiographical autobiography aviation aviator beloved-books biographical biography boarding-house boarding-school bomber-command bombers 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 chocolate classic colonialism coming-of-age courage courageous creativity danger daring desert determination dreams east-africa egypt england entertaining escapades escape escapism excitement exploration family famous-authors fighter-pilot fighter-planes flying flying-ace flying-tigers friendship friendships funny german going-solo greece growing-up growth heroism historical history hitchhiking humor humorous iconic imagination imperialism independence independent india inspiration journey kenya life-changing life-experiences life-lessons literary literature london loneliness longing mediterranean memoir memories middle-east migration military military-service mischief mischief-maker mischievous mombasa non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian norwegian-ancestry norwegian-family norwegian-heritage nostalgia nostalgic occupation overcoming-fear p-40-curtiss-tomahawk p-40-tomahawk p.o.w. parachute passion perseverance personal-growth pilot pilot-training piloting pilots planes prolific-author raf raf-pilot raf-pilots raf-training resilience risk roald-dahl royal-air-force royal-flying-corps royal-navy safari scandinavian second-world-war self-discovery social-commentary solitary solo solo-flying solo-travel south-africa south-america spies spitfire spy spy-stories storytelling success sudan survival suspense syria tales tanganyika tanzania tragedy transformation travel triumph true-story unconventional unique united-kingdom vivid-storytelling wanderlust war war-experience war-experiences war-memoir war-stories wartime wartime-experiences wild-imagination wit witty world-war world-war-ii writer writing wwii young-adult youth