interesting account of Dahl's beginnings, his Norwegian brood etc ( )

Roald Dahl's live was as bizarre, frightening, exciting and funny as the stories he wrote.
Now you can read the whole of his extraordinary autobiography in one volume.

It must be twenty-five years since I last read this and what surprised me on re-reading it was how accurately I remembered it. The episode in Boy with the nose. You know how often you find on re-reading that you've misremembered something, and I think it's a testament to Dahl's clarity of image and style that I stayed with me so clearly. There's a really nice bit in Going Solo where that guy gets shot in the face. It's so graphically described and just what young children need to read. ( )

How lovely to finally pick this book up and read it after having meant to for years. I was prompted to do so by my mother-in-law's experience of having her tonsils removed without anaesthetic in England in the 1930s and hearing that Roald Dahl had undergone the same. Dahl's two autobiographical memoirs cover most of his life. 'Boy' explores his family background and childhood in Wales, summer holidays in Norway,and school days at boarding school in England. His first job is working for Shell and his first posting is East Africa in the late 1930s. 'Going Solo' continues where 'Boy' leaves off and further explores Dahl's work as a Shell agent in the territories that would become Kenya & Tanzania. When World War II is announced, his first task is to assist the authorities to round up German civilians attempting to escape to neutral lands. He then joins the RAF in Kenya and becomes a fighter pilot. He is posted to the Western Desert, then to Greece. Enjoyable for both children and adults, Dahl delights as always. ( )

This is a most engaging autobiography. Written in a very accessible style, the two books take Dahl from childhood through to first job (book 1) then from job to pilot in the Middle East in WW2 until he's invalided home. it's one of those stories that does read a little more like fiction than fact. It doesn't steer clear of the bad things that happened, there's death and danger and some moral attitudes expressed. Having said that, it's not terribly in depth analysis, but I do think it would certainly appeal to boys of a certain age - and as they're the most cynical about reading that's no bad thing. ( )