Going Solo

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Young Roald Dahl leaves England in 1938 for a job with Shell Oil in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, and travelling around East Africa, he comes to love the beautiful and perilous country. Then, with the outbreak of World War II, he decides to sign up with the Royal Air Force and learn to fly. After six months of training, Dahl is ready to join 80 Squadron but is given the wrong directions and crash-lands in the western desert of Libya. He recuperates for half a year in Egypt and takes to the air again, meeting up at last with his squadron in Greece. Though he has no combat training, and minimal flight experience, he and 14 other pilots make up the entire RAF in that theatre of war. On April 20, 1941, this band must take on the German Luftwaffe in the battle of Athens. Dahl recounts the exhilaration of flying, the camaraderie of his fellow pilots and the exotic beauty of his African experience.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

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. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

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) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

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 (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Gr. 7-10. Dahl, who has written many popular fiction books, turns his attention to his own harrowing experiences during World War II in this fascinating memoir written for adults.

Kirkus Book Review

A delightfully captivating swatch of autobiography from the author of Kiss. Kiss, Switch Bitch and many others. Schoolboy Dahl wanted adventure. Classes bored him, there was work to be had in Africa, and war clouds loomed on the world's horizons. He finds himself with a trainee's job with Shell Oil of East Africa and winds up in what is now Tanzania. Then war comes in 1939 and Dahl's adventures truly begin. At the war's outbreak, Dahl volunteers for the RAF, signing on to be a fighter pilot. Wounded in the Libyan desert, he spends six months recuperating in a military hospital, then rejoins his unit in Greece, only to be driven back by the advancing Germans. On April 20, 1941, he goes head on against the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Athens. On-target bio installment with, one hopes, lots more of this engrossing life to come. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.