I read “Going Solo” by Roald Dahl. The book is about his life after school. When he was 18 he wanted to work for Shell Oil Company but also wanted to go somewhere exotic. He was first offered a job in Egypt but declined. After that he got offered a job in Africa which he very eagerly accepted. The contract was for 3 years in Africa so after he said farewell to his family he went on a ship from London to Mombasa which took around two weeks and many stops.
When he got to Africa he got his own servant called Mdisho who comes from the M Mwanumwezi tribe. He had to learn Swahili to talk to Mdisho and his other members of staff. One day Salimu(The gardener) was raking Dahl’s gravel garden when a 6 foot(around 183 cm) long black mamba slithered towards him as fast as a running man. Roald Dahl who was shaving when he saw this and shouted at Salimu who had his back to the deadly snake. Salimu turned round and waited for the black mamba to get very close and then stabbed it in the back with his rake. He jumped up and down pushing the tines of the rake deeper into the snake. After the snake became a bit weak he hit it on its head and killed it. Roald Dahl had saved Salimu’s life.
Another time the cook’s wife was nearly eaten by a lion. The lion had put the cook’s wife into his mouth and ran away. Roald Dahl’s friend got his gun and shot near the lion and the lion dropped the wife and ran away. The cook’s wife was unharmed and she was just playing dead.
There was also a time when Roald Dahl had gone to visit an Englishman name Fuller. When he got near the house he saw a huge green mamba gliding into Fuller’s house. He was so surprised that he as stunned for a few seconds before quickly running around to the back of the house and called for Fuller. Mrs Fuller popped out of the upstairs window and asked what the matter was. Roald Dahl explained to her that there was a giant green mamba in their living room. Mrs Fuller called for her husband and he came. He lowered his wife and two kids out of the window first before hanging on the windowsill and jumping onto the soft grass. Mr Fully went to fetch an old Scottish man who was nicknamed “The snake man” who caught snakes and sold them to zoos and laboratories Unfortunately the Fuller family had forgotten about their dog Jack who had been silently killed by the snake. The snake man caught the green mamba with a very long pole around twice the length of a grown man with two rubber forks on the end of it. He moved the rubber forks up the snake until the snake’s head was between them. He dragged the snake into his large sack and took him home. I think this sounds so hard to do and you have to be unafraid of the snake to do anything this dangerous.
Roald Dahl was also in the RAF and had many encounters with the german bombers. He had a near fatal plane crash when he was flying around looking for an airbase he had been told about and got blinded for months. Dahl had so many accidents in his life and it’s really amazing that he lived for so long regardless of the injuries. Going Solo was a really amazing journey through Dahl’s life before he decided to become an author. I really liked this book as it was easy to read, very exciting and sometimes surprising. I also want to learn more about Africa and maybe even go there some day.
Would you like top read Going Solo? Or have you already read this book? Please let me know in the comments below.