#MMGM: Boy and Going Solo, by Roald Dahl

I'm posting this morning with the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop. The hop is sponsored by  Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle. Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. 

I believe it was Jemima Pett who tipped me off last month with a review of Dahl's memoirs. Many thanks!

First up, the early years: 

 

Title: Boy: Tales of Childhood
Author:  Roald Dahl, read by Dan Stevens
Publication info: Books on Tape, 2013, 3 hours. Originally published 1984, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 160 pages.
Source: Library

Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads):
Where did Roald Dahl get all of his wonderful ideas for stories?

From his own life, of course! As full of excitement and the unexpected as his world-famous, best-selling books, Roald Dahl's tales of his own childhood are completely fascinating and fiendishly funny. Did you know that Roald Dahl nearly lost his nose in a car accident? Or that he was once a chocolate candy tester for Cadbury's? Have you heard about his involvement in the Great Mouse Plot of 1924? If not, you don’t yet know all there is to know about Roald Dahl. Sure to captivate and delight you, the boyhood antics of this master storyteller are not to be missed!

My Review:
I was definitely engaged in this story from the start, including the parts about Dahl's father. Family history explains a lot.

Because it's written for children, there is much here that is not said (and I would love to have an autobio of the author that wasn't written for kids), but there is enough to make a modern child 's hair stand on end. Getting beaten with a cane at school--by the headmaster (that's the principal, for the US audience)? The nature of those early-20th-Century boys' schools is pretty horrifying. But kids will be drawn into his (mis) adventures, and it may give some extra understanding of Dahl's fiction.

 

 

Title: Going Solo
Author: Roald Dahl, read by Dan Stevens
Publication Info: Books on Tape, 2013, 5 hours. Originally published in 1986 by Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 208 pages
Source: Library 

Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads): 

'Going Solo' tells of how, when he grew up, Roald Dahl left England for Africa and a series of daring and dangerous adventures began. From tales of plane crashes to surviving snake bites, read all about Roald Dahl's life before becoming the world's number-one storyteller.

This book is full of exciting and strange things—some funny, some frightening, all true.

Here is the action-packed sequel to 'Boy' (1984), a tale of Dahl's exploits as a World War II pilot. Told with the same irresistible appeal that has made Roald Dahl one the world's best-loved writers, Going Solo brings you directly into the action and into the mind of this fascinating man.

My Review: 
In this memoir of his early adulthood (primarily during WWII, as that came along pretty fast after he left school), Dahl has to deal with some even grimmer realities than in the childhood portion of his memoir. He doesn't sugarcoat things, though he also clearly doesn't tell us everything. I was fascinated as well as horrified by pretty much everything, especially about the war. From the placing of a completely untrained young man (effectively a civilian and barely an adult) in charge of stopping fleeing German civilians to sending a green pilot up in an unknown aircraft to do solo battle with overwhelming German air forces, Dahl tells it (mostly?) like it was. It left me a little in amazement that England didn't lose the war right there. (Note: reading about the US forces in North Africa and Italy a couple years later has led to the same feeling: that rampant incompetence should have led to complete defeat).

We are truly lucky Dahl survived the war so he could write all his amazing books. I count his life story among the many great stories he gave us.

Full marks to narrator Dan Stevens for quality narration in both books. 

My Recommendation:
These memoirs are written for a young audience, but there are plenty of things in them that could be a bit hair-raising. I'd say about ages 10 and up. Zero sex, but a lot of man's inhumanity to man (and boy).

 



FTC Disclosure: I checked Boy and Going Solo out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  


 

 

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 ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2026 

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