During the Second World War Roald Dahl served in the RAF and suffered horrific injuries in an air crash in the Libyan desert.

Drawing on his own experience as a fighter pilot, Dahl crafted these ten spine-tingling stories: of air battles in the sky; of the nightmare of being shot down; of the infectious madness of conflict; and of the nervy jollity of the Mess and Ops room.

Dahl brilliantly conveys the bizarre reality of a wartime pilot's daily existence, where death is a constant companion and life is lived from one heartbeat to the next.