The second part of Roald Dahl's remarkable life story. With the outbreak of World War II, Dahl decides to sign up with the Royal Air Force and learn to fly. He recounts the exhilaration of flying, the camaraderie of his fellow pilots and the exotic beauty of his African experience.
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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.
