Review: Going Solo by Roald Dahl

Title: Going Solo
Author: Roald Dahl
Year: 2001
ISBN: 0-14-131142-8

Going Solo is the second part of the two-part autobiography that continues Roald Dahl's life immediately after he had left high school at the age of 18. Although the author's mother wanted him to enter university, he decided that he have had enough of life as a student and wanted to start working instead.


Dahl applied to work for Shell Oil Company. He was first accepted as a trainee in 1938 and when he was confirmed as a permanent employee, he had requested to be posted to East Africa. Dahl worked as a  fuel salesman for Shell and was based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, then known as Tanganyika. 


Dahl met many different kinds of people and acquired many unusual experiences in life during his working life in East Africa. He learned to speak Swahili and how to survive the harsh and unforgiving African environment. His work for Shell was suddenly interrupted by the outbreak of World War 2 in 1939. 


Dahl was enlisted as a RAF fighter pilot and was assigned to the Western Desert front in Libya. However, he had a serious crash there and was sent to a hospital for a six-months recuperation in Alexandria, Egypt. He was then sent to Greece to fight the advancing Germans after he had supposedly recuperated fully from the injuries he suffered from the crash. However, he was medically invalided in June 1941 due to the side effects of the crash while fighting in Greece and was sent home.  


Dahl once again told his story in a manner where readers would be immersed completely into the story and the era he had once lived in. Readers of all ages would find this book a very entertaining read. Going Solo is a must-read for readers who have previously read Boy: Tales of Childhood as it is the continuation to the author's life story as a young adult.


As with Boy: Tales of Childhood, I would give a double thumbs-up for Going Solo. It is an extremely exciting read as the former and should not be missed if readers have begun to immerse themselves in the world of Roald Dahl.