About the Author

The son of Norwegian parents, Roald Dahl was born in Wales in 1916 and educated at Repton. He was a fighter pilot for the RAF during World War Two, and it was while writing about his experiences during this time that he started his career as an author. His fabulously popular children's books are read by children all over the world. He died in November 1990.

Reviews

The second volume of the beloved British writer's autobiography, after Boy, follows Dahl to his first job, working for an oil conglomerate in Africa, and then into WWII and his career as an RAF pilot. Ages 12-up. (Jan.) r

In this book, Dahl (author of Kiss, Kiss and popular children's books such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) continues the autobiography he began in Boy. Here he offers his impressions of Tanzania, where he sailed to work for the Shell Oil Company in 1938. At the outbreak of World War II, he volunteered for the RAF and trained as a fighter pilot. Posted to his squadron in Greece, Dahl was chagrined to learn he was one of only 14 pilots who made up the RAF in that theater. He describes the attempts of this small group of British pilots to survive both the Luftwaffe and their own superiors. For appropriate collections. George F. Scheck, Naval War Coll. Lib., Newport, R.I.

Gr 7-12-Roald Dahl was Going Solo (Puffin, 1999) when he left England to work for the Shell Oil Company in East Africa. In this sequel to his earlier autobiography, Boy (Dec. 2002, p. 71), the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory details his adventures in Africa and later as an RAF pilot during World War II. Dahl is occasionally tongue-in-cheek as he recalls a few highly dangerous snakes and an inordinately gentle lion during his travels around the African countryside. When war was declared, Dahl helped to round up German ex-patriots, and then he went off to a desert outpost to learn how to fly fighter planes. His wartime experiences in North Africa, Greece, and the Middle East included suffering a serious head injury in a plane crash and shooting down enemy planes. His descriptions of war are occasionally horrific, but there are also frequent injections of ironic humor. Though the thoroughly British pronunciation of some words may be unfamiliar to American listeners, Derek Jacobi's narration is well paced and splendidly balances the comic and serious elements of this memoir. The sound quality is good and, despite the fact that the cardboard case will not circulate well, both it and the cassettes provide useful information. This recording's straightforward recounting of war will appeal to Roald Dahl fans and World War II air buffs, and is most suitable for upper middle school and high school audiences.-Barbara Wysocki, Cora J. Belden Library. Rocky Hill, CT Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.