Going Solo
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.
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5recommend
7mentions
7people
2016–2022years
71% recommend29% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I recommend Roald Dahl's "Going Solo". The Audiobook narrated by Andrew Sachs is quite compelling.
Also, maybe "The Napoleon of Notting Hill" by G.K. Chesterton.
And of course most by P.G. Wodehouse.
- > family members who lived in Britain for years back in the day. They all describe the treatment of children in ways what would horrify Norwegians
In which case, you *must* read Roald Dahl's autobiography 'Boy' (and the follow up, 'Going Solo'). He moved from Norway as a child into the English public school system, and a treatment that horrified his parents.
Incidentally, the biographies are aimed at children but very cleverly written to appeal to adults. For example, he describes a school teacher (in the 1920's) who would occasionally jump and twitch in class, making startled noises. The children found out he had something called "shell shock" and decided that this meant a shell must have exploded so close to him that he jumped so high he hadn't stopped jumping........ Interesting and funny to read as a child, but this works on another level when you read it as an adult.
- As a child, Roald Dahl had a profound impact on me. His autobiographies Boy and Going Solo made me want to explore the world more.
- Though he is probably more well known for his fiction, his memoirs (Boy, Going Solo) were my first reads of Dahl as a child.
That man could tell a fantastic story within a chapter.
- Also worth a look are Boy and Going Solo, Dahl's autobiographies of some of those events. Both excellent, aimed at adults, and a surprising little window into the forces that shaped Dahl-the-author.
- The only association i have with the drink is Roald Dahl’s autobiography Going Solo, in which he alternates among flying against italians and germans in the battle of athens and trying not to die, getting strafed in his own airfield by germans and italians and trying not to die, and getting absolutely shitfaced with other RAF pilots on a hillside with retsina, and trying not to die.
