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 ...
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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. In the autumn of 1938 Dahl sets off to work in Africa aboard a paint-peeling tub full of the dottiest fellow passengers imaginable. He falls in love with Tanganyika: a wonderful, beautiful, exciting country, plentifully covered with exotic wild animals - some of them best kept at a considerable distance. The green and black mambas, Dahl learns, make tricky opponents. Trickier still are the human predators, the Huns, who are trying to take over the world. Britain declares war on Germany and after temporary duty as an army officer, Dahl signs up with the RAF. It is impossible to imagine a more exciting or vivid account of what it was like to learn to fly a fighter plane and take it up to dice with the enemy. A disastrous detour delays him for six months, but then, with all six foot six inches scrunched into the cockpit like a pretzel, young Dahl eventually takes his place in the heavily depleted 80 Squadron, consisting of a mere fifteen fighter pilots and their Hurricanes who have been ordered to provide cover for the entire British Expeditionary Force in Greece. In Dahl's case this insanely doomed venture is undertaken with minimal flying experience and no combat training whatsoever. How close we came to never meeting Charlie and his Chocolate Factory, Danny, the BFG, and Uncle Oswald and others will soon be apparent. If you want to discover how a snake-man avoids a poisonous bite, what to do if you find yourself in the mouth of a lion and where Rudolph Valentino comes into it all, just plunge into the adventurous pages of Going Solo. As Hazel Rochman in the New York Times Book Review declared of Roald Dahl's Boy: 'the autobiographical stories are as frightening and funny as his fiction'. What could be higher praise than that?
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Seller's Description:
Fine in fine dust jacket. Signed. First Edition. A hardback First Edition in Fine condition, very (very) minor softening at base spine, top edge marginally dusty, corners crisp, gilt lettering to spine very strong, blue cloth boards clean and unmarked, pictorial endpapers, interior clean and bright throughout, in a Near Fine to Fine price-clipped dustjacket. This copy is SIGNED by the author (no inscription). Exceptionally scarce. This book is in stock now, in our UK premises. Photos of our books are available on request (the pictures.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Minimal shelf wear to jacket edges. Tanning and foxing to textblock edge. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 176 p. Intended for a young adult/teenage audience.
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Seller's Description:
Fine in Fine jacket. Book. 8vo-over 7¾-9¾" tall. Signed by Author(s) Fine Copy In Like Jacket (Without Wear) First Edition 7.95 net Rare Copy Signed By The Author on Half-Title His Autobiography. Beautiful Copy.
This is the second book of his autobiography. It contains the war stories of his experiences in the Royal Air Force in North Africa and the Mediterranean during World War II. Dahl spins the tale of his adventure starting when he was 22 and a new employee of the Shell Oil Company taking the steamer to Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika. Then with World War II heating up, he joins the R.A.F. in Kenya where he has harrowing misadventures in North Africa while learning to fly fighter plane. The story continues with exciting air fights in Greece against the German fighters and bombers. The tales are told in the funny and outrageous Dahl style but are more believable as he cleverly inserted quotes from letters he wrote to his worried mother as well as many old photos and pages from his pilot's logbook. This is great reading for all ages.
Rich0
Apr 9, 2009
For the Adventurious
Wonderfully written adventure story about a young man taking risks and achieving the benefits of overcoming fear and barriers to life. The Author's dry sense of humor is a treasure and his style of writing is makes you want read more of his books.
