In 1938 Roald Dahl was fresh out of school and bound for his first job in Africa, hoping to find adventure far from home, However, he got far more than he bargained for when the outbreak of the Second World War led him to join the RAF.

His account of his experiences in Africa, crashing a plane in the Western Desert, rescue and recovery from his horrific injuries in Alexandria, and many other daring deeds, recreates a world as bizarre and unnerving as any he wrote about in his fiction.