From BBC Radio 4 - Drama:
To celebrate the centenary year of his birth, a full dramatization of Roald Dahl's gripping autobiographical overseas adventure.

Beginning aboard the SS Mantola, Dahl sets sail for Africa at the tender age of 22. He experiences the remnants of colonial British life, filled with eccentric characters, and is thrown into a world as bizarre and surprising as any you will find in his fiction.

"Life is made up of a great number of small incidents and a small number of great ones."

1/2: Stationed in Tanzania, Dahl is faced with the excitement of the wild; lions carrying off women in their mouths; fatal green mambas captured by snake men. But his savannah-sun-drenched life is interrupted when World War II erupts. Dahl is ordered to round up the German inhabitants of Dar es Salaam and experiences first-hand the horror of war.

2/2: As World War II rages, Pilot Officer Dahl takes to the air in a series of daring deeds. An inspirational account of survival when things seem hopeless, in which the extraordinary is made human.

"The second part is about the time I spent flying for the RAF in the Second World War. There was no need to discard anything from this period because every moment was, to me at least, completely enthralling."

Having joined the RAF Dahl discovers a love of flying. But a crash in the Western desert almost ends his war before he's started. Eventually he rejoins his heavily depleted squadron during the hopeless last days in Greece. Dogged air fights, secret missions and many narrow misses with death ensue before he eventually returns home to his loving mother.

Patrick Malahide provides the voice of Dahl in a colourful adaptation by Lucy Catherine.

Dramatised by Lucy Catherine

Directed by Helen Perry
A BBC Cymru/Wales Production.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07hwwjv

The adventure of a lifetime / or two but in few years.

Someone important had said that Fredrik Backman is Roald Dahl of our generation and that moment I knew that I have to read Roald. The first book was Boy: Tales of Childhood. The second book was this: Going Solo. And the gentleman, Dahl, has lived one hell of a life.

This book starts with Roald starting of a new journey after graduating from school. He is going to East Africa, to Dar es Salaam. He'll be an oil man, working for Shell Oil Company (more reasons why I relate to him). There he shares his adventures with Mambas (deadliest snakes in Africa) and Simba (lion in Swahili). And how peculiar it is for an Englishman to live in a place like that. The war soon breaks out and he has to join the RAF to fight against Bwana Hitler of Germani. He learns how to fly a fighter plane. He crashes his plane, and almost dies. Imagine we could have lost the soul who gave us Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He shoots down enemy planes. While most of the pilots who joined the RAF with him were killed in action, even his good friend David Coke, he survived. And then he goes back to home, and falls in the arms of his mother, to whom he wrote letters as frequently as possible. She had lost all hopes that she'd ever be able to see her Roald again.

Here is an anecdote from the book from the time he crashed his plane, and barely survived. It shivers my spine when I think about it. The difference in life and death is always few lucky inches.

It seemed to me that I had been permanently blinded, and as I lay there in my quiet black room where all sounds, however tiny, had suddenly become twice as loud, I had plenty of time to think about what total blindness would mean in the future. Curiously enough, it did not frighten me. It did not even depress me. In a world where war was all around me and where I had ridden in dangerous little aeroplanes that roared and zoomed and crashed and caught fire, blindness, not to mention life itself, was no longer too important. I was already beginning to realize that the only way to conduct oneself in a situation where bombs rained down and bullets whizzed past, was to accept the dangers and all the consequences as calmly as possible. Fretting and sweating about it all was not going to help.

Now despite facing death so closely, it's remarkable what Roald has to say about his time. “What a fortunate fellow I am, I kept telling myself. Nobody has ever had such a lovely time as this!”.

I wonder sometimes, does all the art in the world is a mask for the pain that a human has endured, and survived. Is art is to pain what lamp is to darkness? I do not surely know, what I do know is that “a life is made up of a great number of small incidents and a small number of great ones.” and Roald has lived one hell of a life.

The book Going Solo by Roald Dahl was a real experience of what happened to him during World War II. Before WWII he went to Africa to work for the Shell Oil Company. During WWII he became a pilot in England. Roald Dahl wrote 48 books in his life. This book is interesting and I would recommend it.

The strength of this book was its excitement. Dahl seemed crazy he talked to animals. One time he talks to the giraffes, “Hello, giraffes! Hello! Hello! Hello! How are you today?” (Going Solo p79). The weakness of the book was that it was difficult to understand because of the unique British spelling and vocabulary. Dahl used several themes, including beauty and danger.

Bwana, it is a beautiful sword. With one blow it cut through his neck so deeply that his whole head fell forward and dangled down on to his chest, and as he started to topple over I gave the neck one more quick chop and the head came right away from the body and fell to the ground like a coconut (G.S p72).

I liked this book because I learned a lot of things about WWII. I would recommend this book to young adults because Dahl used some words that were difficult to understand. Or if you want to learn about Dahl’s life and WW2, it would be a good choice to read.

A lovely tale of real-life adventures of Roald Dahl during his time in the RAF. It is full of daring adventures and unexpected turns. It made me want to fly a jet and shoot down the enemy, but I must say this book has also made me empathetic towards soldiers who fight in war for their nations.

What a lovely book to read!

منذ زمن لم أقرأ كتابا يحاكي سيرة ذاتية لكاتب في قالب قصصي مليء بالمغامرة ويجعل المرء يفكر فيما سيفعله ما إذا كان في نفس الموقف. يدور الكتاب حول رجل تجوال ينتقل إلى أفريقيا للعمل في شركة شل ويحكي رحلاته ومغامراته كجندي متدرب ليقود الطائرات في أفريقيا: تنزانيا ومصر والسودان ثم التوجه إلى اليونان وأخيرا حيفا في فلسطين إبان نشوء الحرب العالمية الثانية.

‏هناك قصة عجيبة لموسوليني حيث أقدم على إرسال سفينة ممتلئة بالنسوة بغرض امتاع الجنود والجنرالات الإيطاليين في أفريقيا! وكتب عنها رولد ومشاهدته لها.

وفي الفصل ما قبل الأخير حين زار حيفا بفلسطين وبدأ حواره مع المستعمر اليهودي، أدركت كيف ولماذا أرادوا هذه الأرض وخططوا لكل شيء من البداية في حديث وددت لو أنه امتد بينهما أكثر.ترجمت جزءا يسيرا منه
————-

- "ولكن من أنت ومن هم كل هؤلاء الأطفال؟" -

قال: "نحن يهود لاجئون". والأطفال جميعهم أيتام . وهذا منزلنا "

- "واللاجئون من أين؟" سالته. 'وكيف وصلتم إلى هنا؟
-"هل ترغب بكوب من القهوة؟"

قال الرجل: "يبدو أنك مندهش لوجودنا هنا".
.-"لم أتوقع العثور على أي شخص هنا"

قال الرجل: «نحن نتواجد في كل مكان. نحن في جميع أنحاء البلاد."

- "عذرا، ولكن أنا لم أفهم بعد ، من المقصود بكلمة "نحن"؟
"اللاجئون اليهود"
-هل هذه أرضك؟

قال: "ليس بعد".

-"هل تعني أنك تأمل في شرائها؟"

نظر إلي في صمت لبعض الوقت. ثم قال: "إن الأرض يملكها حاليًا مزارع فلسطيني ولكنه منحنا الإذن بالعيش هنا، كما سمح لنا ببعض الحقول حتى نتمكن من زراعة طعامنا ".

- إذن، إلى أين ستذهب بعد ذلك؟ أنت وكل أيتامك؟»

قال وهو يبتسم بلحيته السوداء:
«نحن لا نذهب إلى أي مكان. نحن باقون هنا"

- عندئذ ستصبحون جميعاً فلسطينيين. أو ربما أنت كذلك بالفعل.

قال الرجل: لا، لا أعتقد أننا سنصبح فلسطينيين

- 'وماذا ستفعل حينها؟'

وقال: «أنت شاب يقود الطائرات، ولا أتوقع منك أن تفهم مشاكلنا.

- " ماهي هذه المشاكل؟".

قال الرجل : "لديك بلد تعيش فيه ويسمى إنجلترا" . "لذلك ليس لديك أي مشاكل"
*دار حوار طويل ورد رولد دال بعصبية

قال الرجل : "نحن بحاجة إلى وطن". نحن بحاجة إلى بلد تخصنا. حتى الزولو لديهم زولولاند. لكن نحن ليس لدينا شيء."

- "هل تعني أن اليهود ليس لديهم دولة؟"
قال: "هذا بالضبط ما أعنيه. لقد حان الوقت ليكون لدينا دولة واحدة ".

- "ولكن كيف ستنشئون لأنفسكم بلدًا؟"
قال الرجل وهو يتناول كوب قهوته:"سنرى"

- «يمكنك الحصول على ألمانيا». عندما ننتصر على هتلر فربما ستمنحك إياها إنجلترا "

قال الرجل: "لا نريد ألمانيا".
إذا كنت ترغب بشيء بشدة بما فيه الكفاية
وإذا كنت بحاجة إلى شيء بشدة بما فيه الكفاية،
فيمكنك دائمًا الحصول عليه. "

.انتهى الحوار


للأسف لم تترجم بعد وكم أتمنى لو ترجمتها الرائعة أ.بثينة الإبراهيم

سأضع جزءا ترجمته أ.بثينة في أحد حساباتها
اقتباس

3.5 stars.

First off, I am once again shocked that this is considered juvenile fiction. I could see this being for the older range of juvenile fiction (15-18), but I would NOT give this to my little siblings (ages 12-14). There was quite a bit of language, which made me uncomfortable. Yeah, I get it; it's real life, but nonetheless.

Anyway, besides that, I really enjoyed this book! It took me 5 or so chapters to really be interested in it, but after that I was hooked. Dahl's slightly humerous and fascinating accounts of a RAF pilot were so interesting. It also portrayed a side of WWII that you don't hear a lot about: the fighting in the Middle East, which was were Dahl was stationed.

Overall, a good read, but would not recommend to anyone under the age of 15 due to the aforementioned langauge, and somewhat mild description of violence.

Wow what a life!
You can tell why Roald’s stories have this dark edge to them, he lived and experienced more in 4 weeks than I have in near 30 years (though I’m grateful we don’t have to fight in a war!)
He’s very observant, a true storyteller, but also so matter of fact about the deaths of his fellow pilots when it must have affected him a lot, but I suppose he had a long time to process it.
I loved it a lot, I’ll read his stories with new eyes!

Wow, I loved this book. He had such a diverse and interesting life. I loved all of Roald Dahl's books. I had a box set when I was younger, and I devoured these books.

1 JUL 2016 - recommendation through Bettie. Many thanks. With a cover such as this one, I just know this will be a fun read.

Roald Dahl is such an amazing storyteller. I've loved his books for years, and I read Boy about 4 years ago and really enjoyed it. To be honest, I didn't feel like I was in the mood for Going Solo when I picked it up, but it didn't take long for me to get sucked in. I don't know much about the places that Roald Dahl writes about here, or even the historical aspects of WWII that he was involved in, but he tells his stories so vividly. Very, very good.

A very honest and entertaining memoir about Roald Dahl’s days as a colonialist in Tanzania, then his days as a RAF pilot in WW2. Maybe it’s not for everyone because Dahl never acknowledges anything bad about what the Europeans were doing in Africa, on the contrary it’s very romanticized. Well, for Roald Dahl, it was an exciting and wonderful time. He describes a comfortable life living with native servants and chefs, but also an interesting life, filled with crazy characters and encounters with animals (mambas!) In the second half of the book, he talks about WW2, which is also an exciting (but maybe not so fun) time. He takes the reader on a journey through flight training, to fighting the Germans in Greece (and being one of the few pilots to live to tell the tale).

Roald Dahl is that kind of person who is perceptive enough to notice the craziness that is in most people, and good humoured enough to portray it in a nice and funny way. All the incredible things that have happened to him in his life are secondary. It’s his honest, earnest writing that gets you to trust him, love him even, and to read on. And the same earnestness also shines through in his children’s novels, through which he wins the trust and respect of children (a tough audience), and makes them laugh. I think Roald Dahl could have written another memoir about the most mundane periods of his life, and even that would have been entertaining, is what I’m trying to say. This particular book made me laugh out loud on a train.

I’ll end this review with a Roald Dahl quote, not one from this book, but one that keeps coming back to me at random moments. It just shows the kind of person that he is.

A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

Two stars mean "it was okay" and that's all I can say for this. As Morecambe and Wise used to say, "You can see the join!" It reads to me like he started to write one book and ended up with almost-another--"almost" because the ending is chopped short with his return to England. The first half is about his time in Africa, and for me, he was trying too hard to amuse. Surely not every single African colonial he met was bonkers! But he chose to paint them so, with himself as the puzzled, confused new boy. Then war breaks out, and he dashes off to join up. From that point on the book is much more serious, much darker but at the same time more superficial. We learn very little the people he dealt with daily for three years. Dahl says it's because all of them were closed off; I would postulate, however, that he was simply very self-absorbed, like many young men, as witnessed by his encounter with the manager of an orphan settlement in Israel. Not only does he not grasp what the settlement manager means, he doesn't even ask for more information! It's nothing to do with him, anyway.

This is obviously a companion piece to Boy: Tales of Childhood, produced for younger readers, but I could have wished for something better, and did.