Word: dahl
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...horrible sight. His head seemed to splash open and little soft bits of grey stuff flew out in all directions." Younger readers may be astonished that this graphic recollection comes from the author of durable children's books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Admirers of Roald Dahl's "grownup" ^ stories (Kiss Kiss, Switch Bitch) should not be surprised. The passage, which appears in the second installment of Dahl's memoirs, bears his stylistic signature: restraint balancing the macabre...
...Dahl has seen more than his share of that, as Going Solo makes vividly plain. There is the aforementioned shooting, the climax of a bizarre episode in Tanganyika, where the author had gone in 1938 to work for the Shell Oil Co. When, a year later, World War II began in Europe, he was pressed into service by the British colonial government. His first job was to intern resident German civilians (Tanganyika was a German territory until the end of World War I). Dahl was supported by a handful of African militiamen, one of whom fired into...
...Dahl, 6 ft., 6 in. tall, then found himself cramped in the cockpit of a Tiger Moth in Nairobi, Kenya, where he had enlisted in the R.A.F. After training, he was given an unfamiliar Gloster Gladiator and wrong directions to fly to a base in the Libyan Desert. He ran out of gas, crashed and spent six months recovering in Egypt. By the time he got back in the air, this time in a spiffy new Hurricane over Greece, the Luftwaffe dominated the skies. Dahl piloted one of a dozen planes sent up to meet some 200 enemy aircraft...
...Dahl tells of his wartime adventures with an ordinariness of tone that contrasts with the ghastliness of his experiences. This, of course, is the preferred method for a successful horror story. Going Solo is much more: a brief, masterly remembrance of the gifts of youth and good luck...
...Europe, leaders were furious with the Soviets for initially concealing the disaster, and fearful of its health effects. Said Swedish Energy Minister Birgitta Dahl: "We shall reiterate our demand that the whole Soviet civilian nuclear program be subject to international control." In West Germany, Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher urged Moscow to shut all nuclear-power plants similar to the one at Chernobyl. The West Germans asked that an international team be allowed to visit the site. Danish Prime Minister Poul Schluter called the situation "intolerable and extremely worrying." In Poland, where officials said there could be a sharp increase...