About the Author

Roald Dahl was a spy, ace fighter pilot, chocolate historian and medical inventor. He was also the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG and many more brilliant stories. He remains THE WORLD'S NUMBER ONE STORYTELLER. Quentin Blake has illustrated more than three hundred books and was Roald Dahl's favourite illustrator. In 1980 he won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal. In 1999 he became the first ever Children's Laureate and in 2013 he was knighted for services to illustration.

Reviews

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.

The esteemed novelist, short-story writer, author of children's classics and screenplays presents a sequel to Boy, his first book of memoirs, published as a children's book. Now 70, Dahl chronicles events of his youth, when he worked in Africa and garnered material for his chilling tales about lethal snakes and other perils. The autobiography dwells mainly, though, on Dahl's experiences in the British Royal Air Force and on his comrades during World War II. Appealingly illustrated, this second volume contains copies of the author's letters to his mother and ends with their joyful reunion. The book is exciting, touching and graced by Dahl's incomparable sense of humor: a standout. 20,000 first printing. (October)

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.