Everyone who has entered 'the brilliantly colored, sometimes grotesque and sometimes magical world Dahl has conjured up in Boy', as Claire Tomalin described it in the Sunday Times, will be longing to learn what happens to the supreme storyteller next in Going Solo - and they will not be disappointed. It is a tale of deadly snakes on the ground and daring deeds in the air, of African safaris and encounters with the Hun, told with all the irresistible appeal which has made Roald Dahl one of the world's best-loved writers both for adults and for children.
Penguin Readers is an ELT graded reader series for learners of English as a foreign language. With carefully adapted text, new illustrations and language learning exercises, the print edition also includes instructions to access supporting material online.
Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction, introducing language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content.
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Roald Dahl flew planes in the Second World War (1939- 1945) when Germany, Italy and Japan fought against Britain and other countries. Going Solo is Dahl's time with the RAF (Royal Air Force). He writes, "I did not need to leave out anything here because every moment was, to me, totally interesting".
Roald Dahl was born in Wales of Norwegian parents – the child of a second marriage. His father and elder sister died when Roald was just three. His mother was left to raise two stepchildren and her own four children. Roald was her only son.
He had an unhappy time at school - at Llandaff Cathedral School, at St Peter’s prep school in Weston-super-Mare and then at Repton in Derbyshire.
Dahl’s unhappy time at school was to influence his writing greatly. He once said that what distinguished him from most other children’s writers was “this business of remembering what it was like to be young”. Roald’s childhood and schooldays are the subject of his autobiography Boy.
Since Roald Dahl’s death, his books have more than maintained their popularity. Total sales of the UK editions are around 37 million, with more than 1 million copies sold every year! Sales have grown particularly strongly in America where Dahl books are now achieving the bestselling status that curiously proved elusive during the author’s lifetime.
