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 Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

His account of life as a fighter pilot in the Western Desert and in Greece has the thrilling intensity and the occasional grotesqueness of his fiction—Sunday Times

Very nearly as grotesque as his fiction. The same compulsive blend of wide-eyed innocence and fascination with danger and horror—Evening Standard

A non-stop demonstration of expert raconteurship—The New York Times Book Review

Children’s writer Roald Dahl’s memoir of working for Shell (oil) in Tanzania and training as a fighter pilot for the RAF ranges from scenes of comedic Scottish snake charmers to those of terrifying air battles. Dahl’s zest for life and absurdist sense of humor are perfectly encapsulated by Dan Stevens (“Downton Abbey”), who employs both wry and serious tones overlaid with just the right note of adventure. Stevens rolls through African place names and terms without hesitation. He’s a master of pacing, increasing his speed to maximize the excitement when chasing a lion that has stolen the cook’s wife and then amping up the astonishment at the discovery that she has been held so gently as to not be hurt at all. Dahl’s experience of the war and the Allies’ futile air strategy in Greece are appropriately rendered in a grave tone accompanied by disbelief. A.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine