Going Solo - Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl was born in 1916 and passed away nearly twenty years ago, aged 74. The author of over a dozen children's books, numerous collections of short stories and a couple of wonderful compendiums of poetry, he also published his memoirs in two volumes, covering his life from early childhood to the age of twenty (Boy - see previous review!) and the years he spent working for Shell in East Africa and later fighting in the East Mediterranean in World War II. This is the latter of the two, and picks up right where Boy left off, with Dahl aboard a ship heading for the Suez Canal and beyond, to his ultimate destination of Dar Es Salaam, in what is now ...  Read the complete review

If you've read 'Boy', the autobiography of Roald Dahls' childhood, then you may be disappointed by this sequel. It's still quite a good read, but isn't so full of the light-hearted, sickly stories typical of the author. 'Going Solo' begins with Roald leaving school and accepting a job working for the East African Shell Oil company, for which he must move to Dar es Salaam, in what is now Tanzania. There is a particularly memorable in which he comes face-to-face with a poisonous snake in this section of the book. At the outbreak of World War Two, Roald voluntarily joins the RAF and signs up to become a fighter pilot. He is wounded in the Libyan ...  Read the complete review