As a child, I'd devoured all of Dahl's books including this one, but its depth and underlying horror hadn't really registered with me as a nine-year-old. Following on from Boy, Going Solo was another tremendously important book to me as a child. Where I could relate to his boyhood tales in some way, the next part of his life was a complete window to another world. Read then it was extraordinary and magical; read now I appreciate it on different levels entirely. I often amazed myself by the way I behaved when I was certain that there were no other human beings within fifty miles. All my inhibitions would disappear and I would shout, ‘Hello, giraffes! Hello! Hello! Hello! How are you today?’ And the giraffes would incline their heads very slightly and stare down at me with languorous demure expressions, but they never ran away. I found it exhilarating to be able to walk freely among such huge graceful wild creatures and talk to them as I wished.” Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2020-07-02 11:02:53 Boxid IA1834123 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier

Roald Dahl | Going Solo | Slightly Foxed Magazine, Issue 64 Roald Dahl | Going Solo | Slightly Foxed Magazine, Issue 64

All this before he turned twenty-five. The things he had to live through churned my stomach - e specially the account of how he crashed his first plane. Dahl spares no details and, as always, his stories were absolutely fascinating. As a witness to the prelude of the creation of the Zionist entity. This section is extremely creepy and deserves to be quoted: On that morning of 20 April, Flight-Lieutenant Pattle, the ace of aces, who was leading our formation of twelve Hurricanes over Athens, was evidently assuming that we could all fly as brilliantly as he could, and he led us one hell of a dance around the skies above the city. We were flying at about 9,000 feet and we were doing our very best to show the people of Athens how powerful and noisy and brave we were, when suddenly the whole sky around us seemed to explode with German fighters. They came down on us from high above, not only 109s but also the twin-engined 110s. Watchers on the ground say that there cannot have been fewer than 200 of them around us that morning. We broke formation and now it was every man for himself. What has become known as the Battle of Athens began. Very nearly as grotesque as his fiction. The same compulsive blend of wide-eyed innocence and fascination with danger and horror' Evening StandardIt's getting 5 stars because my 2nd grade son LOVES, LOVES, LOVES it!!! The other night he got sent to bed with no read aloud (the little bastard lied to me about brushing his teeth, I know I'm such a hard ass) but he didn't even care!!! He just said "OK", grabbed his this book and happily trotted off to bed. urn:lcp:goingsolo0000dahl:lcpdf:c053cd54-2ede-42cd-bac3-b637e2cb0908 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier goingsolo0000dahl Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t6zx0c15v Invoice 1652 Isbn 9780141349879 From the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG comes an autobiographical account of his exploits as a World War II pilot! It is a fact, and I verified it carefully later, that out of those sixteen, no less than thirteen were killed in the air within the next two years

Going Solo by Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake | Waterstones Going Solo by Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake | Waterstones

I'm giving this book 5 stars without having actually read it, but ya know what it's my review so I can do whatever I want (don't try and stop me)! Like all the others, I was always sent up alone. I wished I could sometimes have had a friendly wing-tip alongside me, and more importantly, a second pair of eyes to help me watch the sky behind and above. But we didn’t have enough aircraft for luxuries of that sort. Things start off merely bizarre: Dahl lying in his bunk on a ship when a figure of a man “naked as a jungle ape” runs past, soon joined by the figure of an equally nude woman. Transforming this imagery into full-scale realm of the macabre is that the two figures turn out to be a Major in the British military and his wife! From there, the story of Dahl’s sojourn in Africa first as an employee for Shell Oil and then as a member of the Royal Air Force becomes the very stuff of fiction. He witnesses what is later described as an event unparalleled in the history of all who heard about it: a woman being dragged away from a village clutched in the jaws of a lion who not only survived the experience, but walked away virtually unscathed. We’ve been doing some pretty intensive flying just lately – you may have heard about it a little on the wireless. [...] We’ve lost 4 pilots killed in the Squadron in the last 2 weeks, shot down by the French. Otherwise this country is great fun and definitely flowing with milk and honey …” There would be no question of me being allowed to have somebody to help me. I shall have to do everything for myself, including the washing and ironing of my shirts.' pg. 85within the first 3rd of the book there was nudity on boats, a lion carrying a person, and a snake crawling into someone's house. Some people do not realize that although a Hurricane had eight guns in its wings, those guns were all immobile. You did not aim the guns, you aimed the plane. The guns themselves were carefully sighted and tested beforehand on the ground so that the bullets from each gun would converge at a point about 150 yards ahead. Thus, using your reflector-sight, you aimed the plane at the target and pressed the button. To aim accurately in this way requires skilful flying, especially as you are usually in a steep turn and going very fast when the moment comes. i don't know why, as a child, i was so obsessed with roald dahl's recollection of his time as a soldier flying airplanes over Africa during World War II?

Going Solo Study Guide: Analysis | GradeSaver Going Solo Study Guide: Analysis | GradeSaver

The fascinating story of Roald Dahl's life continues in Going Solo, a marvelous evocation of the author's wartime exploits. As a pilot in World War II, Roald Dahl had some wonderfully exciting -- and frighteningly near-death -- experiences including encounters with the enemy, battles with deadly snakes, and incredible dogfights. Told with the same irresistible appeal that has made Dahl one of the world's best-loved writers, Going Solo brings you directly into the action and into the mind of this brilliant man. That left us with twelve Hurricanes and twelve pilots with which to cover the whole of Greece from 19 April onwards. Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Old_pallet IA18125 Openlibrary_editionHe looked at me in silence for a while. Then he said, ‘The land is at present owned by a Palestinian farmer but he has given us permission to live here. He has also allowed us some fields so that we can grow our own food.’