First published in 1997, Cleared for Take-Off is the seventh and final volume of Dirk Bogarde’s best-selling memoirs
During his many reconnaissance missions in Europe and the Far East, the young Bogarde experienced the terror of enemy attack and the horror of its aftermath, together with the intense camaraderie and bitter humour of the battlefield. He also felt, like countless others, a feeling of utter hopelessness at the war’s end, when these youthful, but hardened comrades-in-arms were dispersed to find their feet in a traumatised world.
Less than a year after demob, Bogarde found himself starring in his third feature film with car, chauffeur and five-storey house in Chester Row. He had somehow ‘arrived’ in the movies.
