adventure adventures adversity aerial-combat africa africa-safari african african-safari air-combat air-force aircraft airplane airplanes ambition army author auto-biography autobiographical autobiography aviation aviator beloved-books biographical biography boarding-life boarding-school bomber-command bombers bombing bravery british british-air-force british-author british-culture british-empire british-literature challenges childhood childhood-dreams childhood-memories childhoood childrens-literature chocolate classic colonialism coming-of-age courage courageous cows creativity danger daring derring-do desert determination dreams east-africa eccentric egypt enemy england english entertaining escapades escape escapism excitement exploration family famous-authors fighter-pilot fighter-planes flying flying-ace flying-aces 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 malaria mau-mau-uprising mediterranean memoir memoirist memories middle-east migration military military-service mischief mischief-makers mischievous mombasa non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian norwegian-heritage nostalgia nostalgic p-40-tomahawk parents passion perseverance persistence personal-growth pilot pilot-training piloting pilots planes prolific-author raf raf-hornchurch raf-pilot raf-squadron raf-training real-life-stories recollections resilience risk roald-dahl royal-air-force royal-flying-corps royal-navy royal-norwegian-air-force safari scandinavian second-world-war self-discovery social-commentary solo solo-flight solo-flying solo-travel south-america south-sudan spies spitfire spy storytelling success sudan survival syria tales tanganyika tanzania tragedy transformation travel triumph true-story unconventional vivid-storytelling wanderlust war war-experience war-experiences war-memoir war-stories wartime wartime-experiences wartime-pilot wild-imagination wit world-war-ii worldwarii writer writing wwii young-adult young-readers youth