adventure adventures adversity aerial-combat africa africa-safari african-safari air-combat air-force airplane airplanes alexandria ambition army author autobiographical autobiography aviation aviator biographical biography boarding-life boarding-school bomber-command bombers bombing brave bravery british british-air-force british-author british-culture british-empire british-literature challenges childhood childhood-dreams childhood-experiences childhood-memories childrens-literature chocolate classic colonialism coming-of-age courage courageous cows creativity danger daring desert determination dreams east-africa egypt enemy england english entertaining escapades escape escaping-danger escapism espionage excitement exploration family famous-author fighter-pilot fighter-pilots fighter-planes flying flying-ace flying-officer friendship friendships funny going-solo greece growing-up growth heartwarming heroism historical history humor humorous imagination imperialism independence independent india inspiration inspiring journey kenya life-changing life-experiences life-lessons literary literature london loneliness loss malaria mau-mau-uprising mediterranean memoir memoirist memories middle-east migration military military-service mischief mischievous missions mombasa non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian norwegian-heritage nostalgia nostalgic p-40-curtiss-tomahawk p-40-tomahawk palestine parents passion perseverance persistence personal-growth pilot pilot-training piloting pilots planes raf raf-hornchurch raf-pilot raf-squadron raf-training real-life-stories recollections relationships resilience roald-dahl royal-air-force royal-navy royal-norwegian-air-force 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 syria tales tanzania tragedy transformation travel triumph true-story unconventional vivid-storytelling wanderlust war war-experience war-experiences war-memoir war-stories wartime wartime-experiences wild-imagination wit witty world-war-ii worldwarii writer writing wwii young-adult young-readers youth youthful-antics