21stcentury adult-life adventure adventures adventurous adversity aerial-combat africa african-safari air-force airplane airplanes aleppo ancient antiquities army assad author auto-biography autobiographical autobiography aviation aviator beloved-books biographical biography boarding-school brave bravery british british-author british-culture british-empire british-literature british-society catalogs challenges childhood childhood-dreams childhood-experiences childhood-memories childhoood childrens-literature civilwar(syria:2011-) classic colonialism coming-of-age congresses courage courageous creativity damascus danger daring determination dreams east-africa economicconditions egypt england english entertaining escapades escape escapism excavations(archaeology) excitement exploration family famous-authors fiction fighter-pilot fighter-planes flying flying-ace flying-tigers foreignrelations friendship friendships funny general going-solo greece growing-up growth heroism historical history historyandcriticism hitchhiking humor humorous iconic imagination independence independent india is(organization) islam journey kenya lebanon life-changing life-experiences life-lessons literary literature london longing manuscripts mediterranean memoir memories middle-east middleeast military military-service mischief mombasa non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian nostalgia overcoming-fear p-40-curtiss-tomahawk palestine passion perseverance personal-growth pilot pilot-training piloting pilots plane-crashes planes politicalaspects politicsandgovernment prolific-author raf raf-pilot refugees religiousaspects resilience risk roald-dahl royal-air-force royal-navy safari scandinavian second-world-war self-discovery social-commentary socialconditions sociallifeandcustoms solitary solo solo-travel south-africa spies spitfire spy spy-stories storytelling success sudan survival syrian tales tanganyika tanzania terrorism tragedy transformation travel triumph true-story turkey unconventional unique vivid-storytelling wanderlust war war-experience war-experiences war-memoir war-stories wartime wartime-experiences wild-imagination wit world-war world-war-ii worldwar writer writing wwii young-adult youth