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Roald Dahl (September 13, 1916 – November 23, 1990) was a British novelist , short-story writer , poet , screenwriter , and wartime fighter ace of Norwegian descent. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Dahl has been called "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century."

Dahl's short stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his children's books for their unsentimental, often darkly comic mood. His works for children include James and the Giant Peach , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , Matilda , The Witches , Fantastic Mr Fox , The BFG , The Twits , The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me , and George's Marvellous Medicine . His adult works include Tales of the Unexpected .

Repton School

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Roald Dahl was born in 1916 at Villa Marie, Fairwater Road, in Llandaff , Cardiff , Wales , to Norwegians Harald Dahl (1863–1920) and Sofie Magdalene Dahl ( née Hesselberg) (1885–1967). Dahl's father, a wealthy shipbroker, had immigrated to the UK from Sarpsborg. Dahl was named after Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen . His first language was Norwegian, which he spoke at home.

In 1920, when Roald was 3, his older sister Astri died from appendicitis . Several weeks later, his father died of pneumonia at age 57. Later that year, his youngest sister, Asta, was born. Dahl's mother decided to remain in Wales instead of returning to Norway to live with relatives, as her husband had wanted their children to be educated in English schools, which he considered the world's best.

Dahl first attended The Cathedral School, Llandaff. When he was eight, he and four of his friends were punished by the headmaster after putting a dead mouse in a jar of gobstoppers at the local sweet shop, which was owned by a "mean and loathsome" old woman named Mrs. Pratchett. The five boys named their prank the "Great Mouse Plot of 1924." He later used this and other childhood experiences when he wrote about the everlasting gobstopper in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory .

Dahl was transferred to St Peter's boarding school in Weston-super-Mare . He did not like it there, but he did not tell his mother this in his weekly letters to her.

Beginning in 1929, when he was 13, Dahl attended Repton School in Derbyshire. He was never seen as a talented writer in his school years; however, Roald loved literature and photography. He often carried a camera with him wherever he went. Dahl was exceptionally tall, reaching 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) in adult life. He played sports including cricket , football , and golf , and was made captain of the squash team.

During his years at Repton, the Cadbury chocolate company occasionally sent boxes of new chocolates to the school to be tested by the students. Dahl dreamed of inventing a new chocolate bar that would win the praise of Mr. Cadbury himself; this inspired him in writing his third children's book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), and to refer to chocolate in other children's books.

While he was at Repton School, Dahl noticed and disliked the way that older boys were cruel to younger boys. He later wrote about these times in Boy: Tales of Childhood . Some people believe that this is why many of his children's stories are not as happy as most stories. They usually feature adult villains of the child characters. Usually, there are good adults and bad adults in his stories. In Boy: Tales of Childhood , he also wrote about the pleasant times he spent with his mother's family on summer holidays during his childhood and adolescent years.

After finishing his schooling, in August 1934 Dahl crossed the Atlantic on the RMS  Nova Scotia and hiked through Newfoundland with the Public Schools Exploring Society. He also worked for the Shell Petroleum Company. After two years of training, he was assigned to live in Mombasa , Kenya, then to Dar es Salaam in the British colony of Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania). He had a cook and personal servants.

In November 1939, Dahl joined the Royal Air Force as an aircraftman. After his training was complete, he was commissioned as a pilot officer on August 24, 1940. He was judged ready to join a squadron and face the enemy.

On September 19, 1940, Dahl crashed in his aircraft on the territory of Libya. Dahl's skull was fractured and his nose was smashed; he was temporarily blinded. He managed to drag himself away from the blazing wreckage and lost consciousness. It was later revealed that he had mistakenly been sent to the no man's land between the Allied and Italian forces. He wrote about the crash in his first published work.

Dahl had a record of five aerial victories, which qualified him as a flying ace . It is most likely that he scored more than those victories on April 20, 1941, when 22 German aircraft were shot down.

After being sent home because of migraines from his injuries, Dahl was posted to an RAF training camp in Uxbridge . He tried to recover his health enough to become an instructor. In late March 1942, while in London, he met the Under-Secretary of State for Air, Major Harold Balfour , at his club. Impressed by Dahl's war record and his ability to speak well, Balfour appointed Roald as assistant air attaché at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C.

During the war, Dahl supplied intelligence from Washington to Prime Minister Winston Churchill . Toward the end of the war, Dahl wrote some of the history of the secret organization.

Dahl married American actress Patricia Neal on July 2, 1953, at Trinity Church in New York City. Their marriage lasted for 30 years and they had five children:

• Olivia Twenty (1955–1962);
• Chantal Sophia "Tessa" (born 1957), who became an author and was the mother of the author, cookbook writer, and former model Sophie Dahl (after whom Sophie in The BFG is named).;
• Theo Matthew (born 1960);
• Ophelia Magdalena (born 1964);
• Lucy Neal (born 1965).

Dahl worked with hydraulic engineer Stanley Wade and London's Great Ormond Street Hospital neurosurgeon Kenneth Till to develop the "Wade-Dahl-Till" (or WDT) valve, a device to improve the shunt used to lessen the pressure of hydrocephalus. He did this because his four-month-old son Theo suffered from hydrocephalus after his baby carriage was hit by a taxicab in New York City. The WDT valve has been used successfully on almost 3,000 children around the world.

In 1962, Dahl lost his daughter Olivia. She died of measles encephalitis at age seven. Three years later, his wife Patricia Neal suffered three burst cerebral aneurysms while pregnant with their fifth child, Lucy. Dahl took care of his wife while she re-learned how to talk and walk.

In 1983, Patricia Neal and Dahl divorced, and Dahl married Felicity d'Abreu Crosland, known as Liccy. She was a set designer that had worked with Patricia.

Dahl titled his first work "A Piece of Cake." It was the story of his wartime adventures. The Saturday Evening Post purchased it for $1,000 ($17,910 in 2024) and published it under the title "Shot Down Over Libya."

His first children's book was The Gremlins , published in 1943, about mischievous little creatures that were part of Royal Air Force folklore. The RAF pilots blamed the gremlins for all the problems with the aircraft. Dahl went on to write some of the best-loved children's stories of the 20th century, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , Matilda , James and the Giant Peach , The Witches , Fantastic Mr. Fox , The BFG , The Twits , and George's Marvellous Medicine . Tim Burton , Steven Spielberg , and Scarlett Johansson say that they have been positively influenced by Roald Dahl's stories.

Dahl also wrote morbid short stories for adults, which often blended humor and innocence with surprising plot twists. Dahl wrote more than 60 short stories.

The last book published in his lifetime, Esio Trot , released in January 1990, marked a change in style for the author. Unlike other Dahl works (which often feature tyrannical adults and heroic/magical children), it is the story of an old, lonely man trying to make a connection with a woman he has loved from afar.

Dahl's children's works are usually told from the point of view of a child. They typically involve adult villains who hate and mistreat children, and feature at least one "good" adult to counteract the villain(s). Dahl also features characters who are very fat; they are usually children.

Dahl encouraged his children and his readers to let their imaginations run free. He was famous for his inventive, playful use of language, which was a key element of his writing. He built his new words on familiar sounds. Lexicographer Susan Rennie describes it this way: "You know that something lickswishy and delumptious is good to eat, whereas something uckyslush or rotsome is definitely not!"

For a short time in the 1960s, Dahl wrote screenplays. Two, the James Bond film You Only Live Twice and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang , were adaptations of novels by Ian Fleming. Dahl's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was rewritten by David Seltzer and changed to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). Dahl did not like the film. He was angry because the story was changed too much. He said it placed too much emphasis on Willie Wonka and not enough on Charlie.

In his younger days, Roald was an avid reader. He loved fantastic tales of heroism and triumph. His favorite authors were Rudyard Kipling , Charles Dickens , William Makepeace Thackeray , Lewis Carroll , and Frederick Marryat . Their works made a lasting mark on his life and writing.

Dahl said that his mother and her stories also had a strong influence on his writing. She used to tell him traditional Norwegian myths and legends from her native homeland. This helped him to like ghost stories. He based the grandmother character in The Witches on his mother as a tribute .

In 1961, Dahl hosted and wrote for a science fiction and horror television anthology series called Way Out . He also wrote for the satirical BBC comedy show That Was the Week That Was . Between 1979 and 1988, Tales of the Unexpected aired on ITV . The series was originally based on Dahl's short stories.

Death and legacy

Roald Dahl died on November 23, 1990, at the age of 74 of a rare cancer of the blood, myelodysplastic syndrome , in Oxford . He was buried in the cemetery at the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Great Missenden , Buckinghamshire , England. Today, children continue to leave toys and flowers by his grave.

In September 2021, Netflix purchased the Roald Dahl Story Company in a deal worth more than $686 million (£500 million). This is equal to $741 million in 2024.

Some landmarks or items that have been named in honor of Roald Dahl include:

• The Roald Dahl Children's Gallery ,
• The main-belt asteroid 6223 Dahl, discovered by Czech astronomer Antonín Mrkos,
• The Roald Dahl Plass ,
• Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity,
• The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Center ,
• The Roald Dahl Funny Prize,
• "Roald Dahl Day", the anniversary of Dahl's September 13 birthday (celebrated in Africa, the United Kingdom, and Latin America),
• A set of four postage stamps in 2010, and
• A set of six postage stamps in 2012.

• Sixteenth of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945 ( The Times )
• One of the world's best-selling fiction authors
• Britain's favorite author (2000)
• On the list of Amazon 's top five best-selling children's authors on the online store (2016)
• The greatest storyteller of all time, ranking ahead of Dickens , Shakespeare , Rowling and Spielberg (2017 UK poll)
• The top-earning dead celebrity ( Forbes 2021)
• "Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."
• "Life is more fun if you play games."
• "A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely."
• So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall. Then fill the shelves with lots of books."
• "Having power is not nearly as important as what you choose to do with it."
• "If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books."
• Dahl wrote many of his stories in a little shed at the bottom of his garden.
• He never learned to type. He wrote in a red book with a pencil.
• Dahl invented over 250 new and fun words. There is a dictionary (the Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary) that lists his words.
• Many of Dahl’s characters were based on people he had met in real life.
• In 1971, a real man named Willy Wonka wrote to Roald Dahl. He was a postman in Nebraska .
• His nickname in the Royal Air Force (RAF) was "Lofty."
• The famous book James and the Giant Peach was originally going to be called James and the Giant Cherry .

Filmography

• This page was last modified on 30 August 2024, at 10:39. Suggest an edit .

• The Gremlins (1943)
• James and the Giant Peach (1961)
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
• The Magic Finger (1966)
• Fantastic Mr Fox (1970)
• Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972)
• Danny, the Champion of the World (1975)
• The Enormous Crocodile (1978)
• The Twits (1980)
• George's Marvellous Medicine (1981)
• The BFG (1982)
• The Witches (1983)
• The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me (1985)
• Matilda (1988)
• Esio Trot (1989)
• The Vicar of Nibbleswicke (1990)
• The Minpins (1991)
• Dahl wrote two autobiographies. The first was called Boy and covered his childhood up to the age of 20. The second was Going Solo where he talks about his first jobs and his experiences as a fighter pilot in WWII.
• Roald was married to Hollywood actress Patricia Neal.
• He kept a diary as a child and hid it up at the top of a tree so his sisters couldn't get to it.
• He was 6 feet 6 inches tall!
• His favorite color was yellow and his favorite food was caviar.
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• Jeff Kinney
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• Mary Pope Osborne
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• Jerry Spinelli
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Biography Online

Roald Dahl Biography

Roald Dahl – (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a best selling British children’s author and a flying ace in the Second World War.

Short Bio Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl was born in 1916, Cardiff to Norwegian parents. At a young age, his father passed away, and Roald was sent to boarding schools in England. His childhood years left a lasting impression on Roald, and he later serialised these in his autobiography – Boy .

These times were generally unhappy for Roald; he recounts the excessive strictness, corporal punishment and fear amongst the boys. The brutal canning meted out to boys by both staff, and ‘prefects’ particularly stuck in the mind of the young Dahl.

“All through my school life I was appalled by the fact that masters and senior boys were allowed quite literally to wound other boys, and sometimes very severely.” Roald Dahl

He recounted the fear and pain in great detail. He also mentioned a friend who was flogged – by the then headmaster of Repton, leaving a trail of blood. Roald wrote this headmaster went on to become Archbishop of Canterbury and this is one incident that turned him away from religion and God.

Roald Dahl never really fitted in with the public school ethos of discipline and fags. Fags were young boys who would serve elder prefects – for example, Roald wryly wrote how he was chosen to be the favoured ‘bog warmer’ of his prefect. – His job was to sit on an outside toilet to warm it up for his prefect. Despite excelling at sports, Roald later turned down the opportunity to be a prefect as he admitted he could not agree with the general principles.

The only glimpses of happiness were in the school holidays when he visited the beautiful Norwegian Fjords of his parents’ homeland and also towards the end of his school career when he got his first motorbike.

On leaving school, Roald got a job with Shell Petroleum company and in 1934 he was transferred to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. He enjoyed his job and made good progress. However, on the outbreak of war in August 1939, he soon joined the Royal Air Force and became a fighter ace. He gained little training in an old Tiger Moth before being flung into brutal dogfights.

On an early flying mission, Roald Dahl crashed on route to Egypt. He was badly injured and was blinded for several weeks. By February 1941, he was discharged from hospital and was transferred to the Greek Campaign. This was a fight against overwhelming odds as the British forces were outnumbered with only a few aircraft to defend against the German invasion. Roald Dahl was one of the few airmen to survive the bitter dog fighting and was evacuated to Egypt before the fall of Athens. During that time he shot down numerous enemy aircraft, though the exact number was difficult to ascertain. His official figure was confirmed as 5, though this was likely to be more.

After a medical condition, Dahl was invalided back to Britain. For the remainder of the war, he was given a job writing propaganda for the allies. He also supplied intelligence to the British Security Coordination which was part of MI6.

After the war, Dahl began to concentrate more on writing as a career. His first successful story was an account of his crash in Egypt – “A Piece of Cake” – initially published as “Shot down over Libya”. This led to his first children’s book – Gremlins, commissioned by Walt Disney.

He went on to create some of the most memorable children’s books. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda . They set a new tone for children’s books. They often featured a dark sense of humour, grave injustice and grotesque figures (often fat e.g. Augustus Gloop, Bruce Bogtrotter).

“Fairy tales have always got to have something a bit scary for children – as long as you make them laugh as well.” – Roald Dahl

Using elements of semi-autobiography his stories often featured a divide between one or two good people against people who were abusing their positions of power. In books such as Danny The Champion of the World , he introduces elements of class conflict and the triumph of the underdog. His books often had unexpected endings.

In the 1960s, Dahl acquired an old-fashioned gypsy caravan which he parked in his garden where he lived in Great Missenden, Oxfordshire. He used this caravan to write some of his children’s books.

He also wrote short adult short stories, and in the 1960s he also wrote two successful screenplays – Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the James Bond film – You Only Live Twice. But, it is primarily for his best selling children’s books that he is remembered. In a poll commissioned by Canon UK, Canon was considered Britain’s greatest storyteller – above both Dickens and J.K.Rowling.

He married Patricia Neal on 2 July 1953 in New York. They had five children during their 30-year marriage.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “ Roald Dahl “, Oxford, UK www.biographyonline.net , 22nd Jan. 2010. Last updated 18 February 2018.

Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl

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Roald Dahl (September 13, 1916–November 23, 1990) was a British writer. After serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II , he became a world-famous author, particularly due to his best-selling books for children.

Fast Facts: Roald Dahl

• Known For:  English author of children's novels and adult short stories
• Born:  September 13, 1916 in Cardiff, Wales
• Parents:  Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl ( née  Hesselberg)
• Died:  November 23, 1990 in Oxford, England
• Education:  Repton School
• Selected Works:   James and the Giant Peach (1961), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), Fantastic Mr. Fox (1970), The BFG (1982), Matilda (1988)
• Spouses:  Patricia Neal (m. 1953-1983), Felicity Crosland (m. 1983)
• Children:  Olivia Twenty Dahl, Chantal Sophia "Tessa" Dahl, Theo Matthew Dahl, Ophelia Magdalena Dahl, Lucy Neal Dahl
• Notable Quote:  “Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”

Dahl was born in Cardiff, Wales in 1916, in the district of Llandaff. His parents were Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl (née Hesselberg), both of whom were Norwegian immigrants. Harold had originally immigrated from Norway in the 1880s and lived in Cardiff with his French first wife, with whom he had two children (a daughter, Ellen, and a son, Louis) before her death in 1907. Sofie immigrated later and married Harold in 1911. They had five children, Roald and his four sisters Astri, Alfhild, Else, and Asta, all of whom they raised Lutheran. In 1920, Astri died suddenly of appendicitis, and Harold died of pneumonia only weeks later; Sofie was pregnant with Asta at the time. Instead of returning to her family in Norway, she stayed in the UK, wanting to follow her husband’s wishes to give their children an English education.

As a boy, Dahl was sent to an English public boarding school , St. Peter’s. He was intensely unhappy during his time there, but never let his mother know how he felt about it. In 1929, he moved to Repton School in Derbyshire, which he found equally unpleasant due to the culture of intense hazing and the cruelty with which older students dominated and bullied the younger ones; his hatred for corporal punishment stemmed from his school experiences. One of the cruel headmasters he loathed, Geoffrey Fisher, later became the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the association somewhat soured Dahl on religion.

Surprisingly, he was not noted as a particularly talented writer during his schoolboy days; in fact, many of his evaluations reflected precisely the opposite. He did enjoy literature, as well as sports and photography. Another of his iconic creations was sparked by his schooling experiences: the Cadbury chocolate company occasionally sent samples of new products to be tested by Repton students, and Dahl’s imagination of new chocolate creations would later turn into his famous Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . He graduated in 1934 and took a job with the Shell Petroleum Company; he was sent as an oil supplier to Kenya and Tanganyika (modern-day Tanzania).

World War II Pilot

In 1939, Dahl was first commissioned by the army to lead a platoon of indigenous troops as World War II broke out . Soon after, however, he switched to the Royal Air Force , despite having very little experience as a pilot, and underwent months of training before he was deemed fit for combat in the fall of 1940. His first mission, however, went badly awry. After being given instructions that later proved to be inaccurate, he wound up crashing in the Egyptian desert and suffering serious injuries that took him out of combat for several months. He did manage to return to combat in 1941. During this time, he had five aerial victories, which qualified him as a flying ace, but by September 1941, severe headaches and blackouts led to him being invalided home.

Dahl attempted to qualify as an RAF training officer, but instead wound up accepting the post of assistant air attaché at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. Although unimpressed and uninterested with his diplomatic posting, he became acquainted with C.S. Forester, a British novelist who was tasked with producing Allied propaganda for American audiences. Forester asked Dahl to write down some of his war experiences to be turned into a story, but when he received Dahl’s manuscript, he instead published it as Dahl had written it. He wound up working with other authors, including David Ogilvy and Ian Fleming, to help promote British war interests, and worked in espionage as well, at one point passing information from Washington to Winston Churchill himself.

The knack for children’s stories that would make Dahl famous first appeared during the war as well. In 1943, he published The Gremlins , turning an inside joke in the RAF (“gremlins” were to blame for any aircraft problems) into a popular story that counted Eleanor Roosevelt and Walt Disney among its fans. When the war ended, Dahl had held the rank of wing commander and squadron leader. Several years after the end of the war, in 1953, he married Patricia Neal, an American actress. They had five children: four daughters and one son.

Short Stories (1942-1960)

• "A Piece of Cake" (published as "Shot Down Over Libya," 1942)
• The Gremlins (1943)
• Over to You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying (1946)
• Sometime Never: A Fable for Superman (1948)
• Someone Like You (1953)
• Kiss Kiss (1960)

Dahl’s writing career began in 1942 with his wartime story. Originally, he wrote it with the title “A Piece of Cake,” and it was bought by The Saturday Evening Post for the substantial sum of $1,000. In order to be more dramatic for war propaganda purposes, however, it was renamed “Shot Down Over Libya,” even though Dahl had not, in fact, been shot down, let alone over Libya. His other major contribution to the war effort was The Gremlins , his first work for children. Originally, it was optioned by Walt Disney for an animated film , but a variety of production obstacles (problems with ensuring the rights to the idea of “gremlins” were open, issues with creative control and RAF involvement) led to the project’s eventual abandonment.

As the war came to an end, he kicked off a career writing short stories, mostly for adults and mostly published originally in a variety of American magazines. In the waning years of the war, many of his short stories remained focused on the war, the war effort, and propaganda for the Allies. First published in 1944 in Harper’s Bazaar , “Beware of the Dog” became one of Dahl’s most successful war stories and eventually was loosely adapted into two different movies.

In 1946, Dahl published his first short story collection. Entitled Over to You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying , the collection includes most of his war-era short stories . They’re notably different from the more famous works he’d later write; these stories were clearly rooted in the wartime setting and were more realistic and less quirky. He also tackled his first (of what would only be two) adult novels in 1948. Some Time Never: A Fable for Supermen was a work of dark speculative fiction, combining the premise of his children’s story The Gremlins with a dystopian future imagining worldwide nuclear war. It was largely a failure and has never been reprinted in English. Dahl returned to short stories, publishing two consecutive short story collections: Someone Like You in 1953 and Kiss Kiss in 1960.

Family Struggles and Children’s Stories (1960-1980)

• James and the Giant Peach (1961)
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
• The Magic Finger (1966)
• Twenty-Nine Kisses from Roald Dahl (1969)
• Fantastic Mr. Fox (1970)
• Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972)
• Switch Bitch (1974)
• Danny the Champion of the World (1975)
• The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More (1978)
• The Enormous Crocodile (1978)
• The Best of Roald Dahl (1978)
• My Uncle Oswald (1979)
• Tales of the Unexpected (1979)
• The Twits (1980)
• More Tales of the Unexpected (1980)

The beginning of the decade included some devastating events for Dahl and his family. In 1960, his son Theo’s baby carriage was hit by a car, and Theo nearly died. He suffered from hydrocephalus, so Dahl collaborated with engineer Stanley Wade and neurosurgeon Kenneth Till to invent a valve that could be used to improve treatment. Less than two years later, Dahl's daughter, Olivia, died at age seven from measles encephalitis. As a result, Dahl became a staunch proponent of vaccinations and he also began questioning his faith—a well-known anecdote explained that Dahl was dismayed at an archbishop’s remark that Olivia’s beloved dog could not join her in heaven and began questioning whether or not the Church really was so infallible. In 1965, his wife Patricia suffered three burst cerebral aneurysms during her fifth pregnancy, requiring her to relearn basic skills like walking and talking; she did recover and eventually returned to her acting career.

Meanwhile, Dahl was becoming more and more involved in writing novels for children. James and the Giant Peach , published in 1961, became his first iconic children’s book, and the decade saw several more publications that would go on to endure for years. His 1964 novel, though, would be arguably his most famous: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . The book received two film adaptations, one in 1971 and one in 2005, and a sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator , in 1972. In 1970, Dahl published The Fantastic Mr. Fox , another of his more famous children’s stories.

During this time, Dahl continued to turn out short story collections for adults as well. Between 1960 and 1980, Dahl published eight short story collections, including two “best of” style collections. My Uncle Oswald , published in 1979, was a novel using the same character of the lecherous “Uncle Oswald” who featured in a few of his earlier short stories for adults. He also continuously published new novels for children, which soon surpassed the success of his adult works. In the 1960s, he also briefly worked as a screenwriter, most notably adapting two Ian Fleming novels into films: the James Bond caper You Only Live Twice and the children’s movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang .

Later Stories for Both Audiences (1980-1990)

• George's Marvelous Medicine (1981)
• The BFG (1982)
• The Witches (1983)
• The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me (1985)
• Two Fables (1986)
• Matilda (1988)
• Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life: The Country Stories of Roald Dahl (1989)
• Esio Trot (1990)
• The Vicar of Nibbleswick (1991)
• The Minpins (1991)

By the early 1980s, Dahl’s marriage to Neal was falling apart. They divorced in 1983, and Dahl remarried that same year to Felicity d’Abreu Crosland, an ex-girlfriend. Around the same time, he caused some controversy with his remarks centered on Tony Clifton's picture book  God Cried , which depicted the siege of West Beirut by Israel during the 1982 Lebanon War. His comments at the time were widely interpreted as antisemitic , although others in his circle interpreted his anti-Israel comments as non-malicious and more targeted at the conflicts with Israel.

Among his most famous later stories are 1982’s The BFG and 1988’s Matilda . The latter book was adapted into a much-beloved film in 1996, as well as an acclaimed stage musical in 2010 on the West End and 2013 on Broadway. The last book released while Dahl was still alive was Esio Trot , a surprisingly sweet children’s novel about a lonely old man trying to connect with a woman he has fallen in love with from afar.

Literary Styles and Themes

Dahl was far and away best known for his very particular and unique approach to children’s literature . Certain elements in his books are easily traced to his ugly experiences at boarding school during his youth: villainous, terrifying adults in positions of power who hate children, precocious and observant children as protagonists and narrators, school settings, and plenty of imagination. Although the boogeymen of Dahl’s childhood certainly made plenty of appearances—and, crucially, were always defeated by the children—he also tended to write token “good” adults as well.

Despite being famous for writing for children, Dahl’s sense of style is famously a unique hybrid of the whimsical and the gleefully macabre. It’s a distinctively child-centric approach, but one with a subversive undertone to its obvious warmth. The details of his antagonists’ villainy are often described in childlike but nightmarish detail, and the comic threads in stories such as Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are laced with dark or even violent moments. Gluttony is a particular target for Dahl’s sharply violent retribution, with several notably fat characters in his canon receiving disturbing or violent ends.

Dahl’s language is notable for its playful style and intentional malapropisms . His books are littered with new words of his own invention, often created by switching around letters or mix-and-matching existing sounds to make words that still made sense, even though they weren’t real words. In 2016, for the centenary of Dahl's birth, lexicographer Susan Rennie created  The Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary , a guide to his invented words and their “translations” or meanings.

Near the end of his life, Dahl was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare cancer of the blood, typically affecting older patients, that occurs when blood cells do not “mature” into healthy blood cells. Roald Dahl died on November 23, 1990, in Oxford, England. He was buried at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Great Missenden, in Buckinghamshire, England, in a fittingly unusual fashion: he was buried with some chocolates and wine, pencils, his favorite pool cues, and a power saw. To this day, his grave remains a popular site, where children and adults alike pay tribute by leaving flowers and toys.

Dahl’s legacy largely dwells in the enduring power of his children’s books. Several of his most famous works have been adapted into several different media, from film and television to radio to stage. It’s not just his literary contributions that have continued to have an impact, though. After his death, his widow Felicity continued his charitable work through the Roald Dahl Marvellous Children’s Charity, which supports children with various illnesses throughout the UK. In 2008, the UK charity Booktrust and Children's Laureate Michael Rosen joined forces to create The Roald Dahl Funny Prize, awarded annually to authors of humorous children's fiction. Dahl’s particular brand of humor and his sophisticated yet approachable voice for children’s fiction have left an indelible mark.

• Boothroyd, Jennifer.  Roald Dahl: A Life of Imagination . Lerner Publications, 2008.
• Shavick, Andrea.  Roald Dahl: The Champion Storyteller . Oxford University Press, 1997.
• Sturrock, Donald.  Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl , Simon & Schuster, 2010.
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Roald dahl: the story of the 'storyteller'.

Roald Dahl in his writing hut. He used the hut as a place to escape and reconnect with his inner child. The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre hide caption

Roald Dahl in his writing hut. He used the hut as a place to escape and reconnect with his inner child.

Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl By Donald Sturrock Hardcover, 672 pages Simon & Schuster List price: $30

Read An Excerpt

Roald Dahl is best known for his children's stories.  His first -- and arguably his most famous -- was James and the Giant Peach , published in 1961, when Dahl was already in his mid-40s.

But prior to finding his calling as a children's author, Dahl tried out several other careers -- as an oilman for Shell, a pilot in Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) and a member of the British diplomatic corps.

Perhaps one of the most interesting periods in Dahl's life -- and one that demonstrates his considerable charm -- was during World War II. Early in the war, Dahl spent several years living in the United States, trying to raise awareness for the British war cause. Donald Sturrock, author of Storyteller , a new biography of Dahl, tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer just how successful Dahl was in this endeavor.

"It was a dizzying ride to the top of Washington, New York and L.A. society," he says. "Dahl's mission was to conquer American society, which he did with a series of speeches about what it was like to be a RAF man."

Dahl's writing career took off here, too.  While in America, he wrote a short piece of fiction about gremlins -- the mythical creatures that cause problems with RAF airplanes.  The story became very popular and received a tremendous amount of attention.  A copy sent to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt charmed her enough that she invited Dahl to the White House.  Walt Disney also fell under the gremlins' spell and flew Dahl to Hollywood to discuss making a movie.

Dahl's gremlins never made it into a movie, but they did make it into a book, which Sturrock says may have helped in promoting a positive image of Britain and the RAF to wartime America.

Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal on their Rome honeymoon in 1953. The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre hide caption

Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal on their Rome honeymoon in 1953.

Dahl would capture America's attention again in 1952, when he married actress Patricia Neal, who later won an Oscar for her performance with Paul Newman in Hud . Although the marriage almost failed in the first few months, Sturrock says it eventually became one of great strength.

"Pat and Roald were bound together by these two tragedies that happened quite early on with their children," he explains. "Their son Theo was knocked over and crushed against the side of a bus by a cab in New York, and secondly when their eldest daughter, Olivia, died, aged only 7, from complications resulting from measles."

Neal would also suffer an aneurysm and a series of strokes, which caused her to lose the use of one side of her body and made speech very difficult. Dahl worked out an intensely rigorous rehabilitation therapy for her that, to many, seemed almost cruel.

But, Sturrock says, what Dahl did was very pioneering at that time.

"It's almost become standard practice, his idea that you must stimulate a stroke victim quite early on and quite extremely in order to get them back to health," he explains.

Dahl worked hard to help Neal recover and, although it was a very painful process for her, she was extremely grateful to him, especially given that she was able to return to her acting career within only a few years.

Dahl, the storyteller, reads to a group of enthralled children. The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre hide caption

Dahl, the storyteller, reads to a group of enthralled children.

Neal's acting career, and then her illness, meant that Dahl assumed many of the domestic responsibilities -- taking care of the house and the children.  But to focus on his writing, Dahl needed a more private place.   He would often retire to a small work hut -- his writing hut -- where he could indulge his love of fantasy and escape from reality.

Dahl himself told Sturrock that the hut helped him think like a child.

"I can cut myself off there," Dahl said, "...and within minutes become six and seven and eight again."

That, says Sturrock, was Dahl's most special gift -- he truly understood children.  "He had an extraordinary confidence about his ability to see into a child's mind and to see the world the way a child saw it."

Excerpt: 'Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl'

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13 phizz-whizzing facts about Roald Dahl

We’ve put together some fantastic facts about roald dahl’s life, and boy are there some humdingers….

13th September 2020 marks what would have been Roald Dahl’s 104th birthday!

To celebrate all the brilliant books , playful poems and witty words he gave us over the years, we’ve put together some fantastic facts about the author’s life, and boy are there some humdingers…

Did you know that we have a FREE downloadable Roald Dahl primary resource ? Great for teachers, homeschoolers and parents alike!

Roald Dahl facts

1. dahl wrote many of his stories in a little shed at the bottom of his garden.

Known as his ‘writing hut’, Dahl sat in a battered old armchair and penned famous tales such as Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory .

2. He was a fighter pilot in World War II 

During a flight in a Gloster Gladiator (fighter plane) in 1940 over Libya, Dahl crash landed in the desert and survived – all because he’d been given the wrong directions!

3. Dahl wrote for around four hours every single day

From 10am – 12pm, and then 4pm – 6pm

4. He never learned how to type

Instead, Dahl preferred to do all his writing in an old red book in pencil.

5. When Roald Dahl died in 1990, he was buried with some of his favourite things

Including a power drill, chocolate, snooker cues and of course, his HB pencils.

6. There are strange mementos still sitting in his writing hut

These include a huge ball made of old chocolate wrappers, and a piece of hip bone that he had to have removed!

Quentin Blake illustrated many of Dahl’s much loved books over the years.

7. dahl was a spy.

During World War II he passed intelligence to MI6 from Washington.

8. Dahl invented over 250 new words

There’s even an official Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary to help you tell your snozzcumbers from your snozzberries.

9. Many of Dahl’s characters were based on people he’d met in real life

The grandmother in The Witches is said to be based on Dahl’s mother, and the little girl in The BFG was named after his granddaughter, Sophie. 

10. Dahl was born in Wales, but his parents were Norwegian

As a child, Roald spoke fluent Norwegian and English. He’s even named after the famous Norwegian polar explorer, Roald Amundson.

11. Writing wasn’t his strong point at school

– according to his teachers, anyway!

12. In 1971, a real man named Willy Wonka wrote to Roald Dahl

He was a postman from Nebraska.

13. Roald Dahl was a giant!

Okay, not quite like the ones in his stories, but he was 6 foot 6 inches tall! This earned him the nickname ‘Lofty’ when he served in the RAF.

Which is your favourite Roald Dahl book? Let us know by leaving a comment, below!

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Nice facts and my favourite book is... The BFG

George’s Marvellous Medicine, because it’s SO funny!

Esio Trot is my favourite, because it just is!

its very creative!

thx for the facts

I got the whole collection of Roald Dahl books yesterday, I've already read two and love them! My favourite is Matilda though!

My favorite book: The witches and Charlie and the chocolate factory

I all most read every book he has

Thank you and very interesting

i love roald dahl

The fantastic Mr fox

The Fantastic Mr Fox

Ilove reading his books so much

James and giant peach

wow i did not know that

hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii coooooooooolllllllllllllll

My favourite book was the twits

Love the info

I like this info

I love this facts but they can be shorter

I like Matilda

Thanks for the info

he is a auspicious author and i am a fan of him

Fantastic Mr.Fox !!!!

I like matilda

easy to find.

The Twits is my favorite book

My favrourite is Danny The Campion of The world so far. I found out the arthor Roald Dahl when I was in the Op-shop.

My favourite Roal Dahl book is Matilda

My dog is called Sophie my favorite is the bfg

I love Roald Dahl! Matilda is my favourite. And to think writing wasn’t his strong point at school?!

I don't have a favorite because all of them are TRULY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I loved roald dahl's books , and I have always wanted to meet him. But sadly, he has already past away.

#1 fan roald dahl my 3 favourite books are the twits, matilda and james and the jient peach love you roald xoxoxo

We like the BFG because there are amazing twists about the story.

i love reading Roald Dahl books my fav book is the witches :) :] ps. i love you Roald Dahl

Brilliant I love his books

I love all of Roald Dahls books

the bfg is my favourite. and the little girl is called sophie because his granddaughter sophie used to call him the bfs.

#1 fan! My favourite book is Mischief and Mayham. Your the BEST Roald Dahl.

Roald Dahl is AWESOME! My favourite book is Mischief and Mayham.

My favourite book is CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY Well done Roald Dahl

I love Matilda

Love the facts

I love Roald Dahl

My favorite is Matilda because I like the adventure, the Trunchbull and her super power.

love love love thease amazing books so cool

my favourite is the BFG

I love Roald Dahl books, especially The BFG and Matilda

my favourites are probably The BFG because it is so entertaining and funny. next is Matilda because it has so much in it!

All his books are the MOST BEST BOOKS EVER

BFG because its funny and intresting

I have Roald Dahl audio books... all of them!

My favourite Roald Dahl stories are The witches and The BFG

wow that is a lot of facts about one of my fave author Roald Dahl!!!!! :)

My favourite Roald Dahl book is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - because i like chocolate, my dad doesn't like the umpa-lumpas

He is my most favourite author of all times.

I love Matilda!

bfg its awesome

I think number 12 is super cool

my favourite book is the BFG

My fav is Matilda.

Great facts

My favourite book of roald dahl is the witches because it teaches us to not go with strangers.

my favorite roald dahl book is the twits

my favourite Roald Dahl book is the BFG. Fun fact I was born in the same month as Roald Dahl...SEPTEMBER!!!

All of them and thank you for the facts

he was the greatest story teller but how did he die?

I love Roald Daul books!

Matilda is awsome

my favarrite book is the bfg

This is amazing and cool to learn facts about Ronald Dahl !.

cool facts i love it

I like the BFG because he says silly words and blows dreams i wondered where dreams came from.

i like esio trot

my favourite book is danny the champion of the world

BEST FACTS EVER!!!

Amazing Roald dahl is one of my favorite authors eve!!!!

I love Matilda.

My favourite Roald Dahl book is Georges Marvellous Medicine!

Loved his books ( especially the bfg) I knew most of these facts but the others were great to know

James and the giant peach!!!

Matilda is my favourite book

Charlie and the chocolate factory

My favourite Roald Dahl book is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Im planning to become a storyteller when I grow up.

I love the BFG!

My favourite book is the BFG

I really like the book Matilda. I like the way Dahl put the characters together. Miss Trunchbull is super freaky and cool at the same time:-)

I love the BFG because of all the hilarious words!

My favourite Roald Dahl book is Charlie and the chocolate factory because it is all about chocolate and I love chocolate.

My favourite book by Roald Dahl is the bfg

Favourite book? How can I choose just one? The BFG is wonderful but Danny the Champion of the World also holds a special place in my heart! A grown up child of 40!

Roal Dhal is an amazing author. My favorite Roal Dhal book is Matilda.

he is 100 today and i went to school first day and i did not know he died in 1990

My favourite Roald Dahl book is Matilda because it is funny and enjoyable and i love reading just like her

the twits is my fav

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(1916–90). Although British author Roald Dahl wrote many books for adults, he is best known for his action-packed children’s books filled with memorable, magical and often bizarre characters. Many of his works feature children triumphing over cruel and beastly adults.

Dahl was born on Sept. 13, 1916, in Llandaff, Glamorgan, Wales. His family moved to Kent, England, after his father died in 1920. After graduating from high school, he worked for Shell Oil Company in London and then Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. From 1939 to 1945, Dahl served in the Royal Air Force, and injuries he received while flying as a fighter pilot plagued him for the rest of his life. His stories about the military were published in popular magazines and in the book Over to You (1946). His first children’s book, The Gremlins (1943), told of mean little creatures who make fighter aircraft crash. During the 1950s he concentrated on writing horror stories for adults.

Dahl’s interest in juvenile literature resurfaced when he began making up bedtime stories for his own children. One of his earliest successes was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), a story about a poor boy whose luck changes when he gets to visit the workshop of Willy Wonka, a charismatic candy maker. Dahl later turned the novel into the screenplay for the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971). Some of his other screenwriting credits include You Only Live Twice (1967) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), both based on novels by Ian Fleming . Dahl’s own books James and the Giant Peach (1961), The Witches (1983), and Matilda (1988) were adapted by others into movies during the 1990s. He also wrote two autobiographies, Boy: Tales of Childhood (1984) and Going Solo (1986). Dahl died in Oxford, England, on Nov. 23, 1990.

Additional Reading

Association for Library Service to Children Staff. Newbery and Caldecott Mock Election Kit: Choosing Champions in Children’s Books (American Library Association, 1994). Association for Library Service to Children Staff. The Newbery and Caldecott Awards: A Guide to the Medal and Honor Books (ALA, 1994). Brown, Muriel, and Foudray, R.S. Newbery and Caldecott Medalists and Honor Book Winners: Bibliographies and Resource Materials Through 1991, 2nd ed. (Neal-Schuman, 1992). Chevalier, Tracy, ed. Twentieth-Century Children’s Writers, 3rd ed. (St. James, 1989). Sharkey, P.B. Newbery and Caldecott Medal and Honor Books in Other Media (Neal-Schuman, 1992). Silvey, Anita, ed. Children’s Books and Their Creators (Houghton, 1995).

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Roald Dahl Fans

Fan site for author Roald Dahl (1916-1990)

Dahl Biography

Children of all ages have read and enjoyed books by Roald Dahl. Many of his stories, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach , have become classics in their own time.

As recounted in Boy , Roald Dahl’s father, Harald Dahl, immigrated to England from Norway around the turn of the century (1900). Not long after the death of his first wife, he took a trip back to Norway in hopes of finding a wife to help him raise his young son and daughter. He married Sofie Magdalene Hesselberg in 1911 and the couple moved to Dahl’s home in Llandaff, Wales. Over the next six years they had five children: Astri, Alfhild, Roald, Else, Asta. Roald was born on September 13, 1916 in Llandaff. Unfortunately Astri, the eldest, died of appendicitis in 1920. Harald Dahl quickly deteriorated after his daughter’s death and he died of pneumonia a few months later. Sofie Dahl, pregnant at the time with Asta, was left with three of her own children, two step-children, a sizeable estate, and her husband’s dying wish that his children would be educated in English schools, which he thought the best in the world.

A less determined woman would have packed up and moved back home to Norway, but Sofie decided to stay in Wales and carry out Harald’s wish. But she wasn’t ready to move to England yet. First she moved the family into a smaller, more manageable home in Llandaff and then one-by-one sent each of her children to Elmtree House, a local school, for kindergarten. When Roald was seven Sofie decided it was time for him to go to a proper boy’s school, so she sent him to nearby Llandaff Cathedral School. He spent two years there and his only memories of it are described in Boy – one involves an older boy whizzing by on a bicycle, and the other involves The Great Mouse Plot that earned him and his friends a savage caning by the school’s headmaster. This violent incident was what prompted Sofie to withdraw Roald from the Llandaff school and finally send him off to an English boarding school: St. Peter’s.

Roald Dahl Was a WW II Spy and Fighter Pilot Before Becoming a Beloved Children's Book Author

Prior to writing 'James and the Giant Peach,' 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,' 'Matilda,' and more, Dahl was a member of the Air Force and involved in a covert spy operation.

British author Roald Dahl had enough adventures to last several lifetimes before he found his calling writing children's books.

It all started during World War II when Dahl left his oil industry job in Tanzania to enlist in the Royal Air Force in 1939. Despite measuring well over six feet, which made it difficult for him to fit into a cockpit, he became a fighter pilot. But on his first excursion he crashed in the Libyan desert (Dahl would later write that he'd been shot down, but it was an accidental crash).

The crash fractured his skull, injured his spine and destroyed his nose. Swelling left him temporarily unable to see, and it took several months for Dahl to recover. But he turned down a chance to go back home to convalesce in the hopes of flying again, and in the spring of 1941, he was cleared to join the battle against the German invasion of Greece.

In this fight, the small number of British planes were vastly outnumbered by German ones, and aerial combat was often deadly for the British pilots. Dahl survived the dangerous flights and took down some of the enemy before it was necessary to retreat. Yet after this, he only flew for a few more weeks. Suffering from increasingly painful headaches and occasional blackouts linked to his earlier injuries, he was deemed unfit to fly.

Dahl became a spy in Washington, D.C.

In 1942, America was a recent ally in World War II. But the country still had many isolationists who were unhappy about joining the fight — some even felt President Franklin D. Roosevelt had conspired to let Pearl Harbor happen in order to push America toward war. As a dashing, wounded fighter pilot, Dahl was sent to the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., to help make the case for U.S. involvement in the war.

Dahl could be charming, which won him invitations to dinners and cocktail parties. And he was helped along in society by the friendship of Charles Marsh, a newspaper owner and oil magnate (whose other mentees included Lyndon Johnson ). Eventually, Dahl became involved in the covert spy operation British Security Coordination.

BSC's agents were keeping an eye on U.S. involvement in the war, as well as scoping out any post-war plans the United States might be making. His work as a spy still called for Dahl to attend a lot of dinners and cocktail parties — but now he was reporting the tidbits and gossip he heard to BSC.

He was tight with major political players

When Dahl was invited to visit Hyde Park with President Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt , he took notes to pass along to BSC. Among Dahl's other notable friends and acquaintances were Vice President Henry Wallace (the two regularly played tennis) and then-Senator Harry Truman (who Dahl joined for poker games). Dahl also had numerous affairs, including with Congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce. The congresswoman wasn't an avid supporter of British interests; Dahl may have been directed to encourage her to change these views.

Dahl's friend Marsh inadvertently aided the younger man's espionage when he showed Dahl some papers from Wallace regarding America's plans for the aviation industry once the war was over. Dahl was so intrigued by what he'd read that he arranged for someone to come and take the papers to be copied. While this was happening he lingered by the lavatory to establish an alibi should anyone wonder why it had taken him so long to read the document.

Dahl was valued enough that even when his higher-ups at the embassy didn't want him around any longer — he was a very undiplomatic diplomat who didn't care for office life — BSC arranged for his return to the States. And he had enough pull that he was able to help Ernest Hemingway travel to London, where Dahl served as Hemingway's minder, prior to D-Day.

Dahl nearly made a film with Walt Disney

Being an embassy attaché and spy would seem enough to occupy most people — but Dahl also found time to write while he was posted in the States during World War II. A piece about his crash in Libya impressed writer C.S. Forester so much that he helped Dahl get it published in the Saturday Evening Post .

Another Dahl project was about gremlins. These creatures had a long history within the RAF, often receiving the blame for mechanical failures. Dahl's work on a story about gremlins led to interest from Walt Disney , who began developing an animated feature. Dahl made trips to Hollywood to work on the film (on one occasion dining with Ginger Rogers). But he proved to be a difficult collaborator at times, arguing with Disney about how the gremlins should look. And as commercial prospects for the movie seemed to dim, Disney decided not to make it after all.

Dahl's gremlins did appear in an illustrated book published under the Disney aegis in 1943 (he sent a copy to Eleanor Roosevelt, which helped the two forge their friendship). But this book would be the only children's publication on Dahl's resume for many years to come. It wasn't until he wrote James and the Giant Peach , which was published in the United States in 1961, that he discovered his true calling: writing books for children.

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Roald Dahl: The Master of Children’s Literature

Roald Dahl, a renowned British novelist, etched a unique niche in children’s literature. His imaginative tales and vivid storytelling forever reshaped the literary world.

Roald Dahl holds his place to this day as one of the most creative writers of a generation. The British novelist, short-story writer, poet, and screenwriter, brought a unique style of storytelling to children’s literature. 

The works of Roald Dahl resonated with both young and adult readers, and he is known for his incredible creativity. Dahl used a strong narrative voice , which led to a satisfying blend between the macabre and more traditional themes used throughout children’s literature.

His whimsical tales and dark humor continue to be celebrated worldwide, translated into over 60 languages and selling more than 250 million copies globally. 

He was known for classic literary works and children’s books such as Matilda , James and the Giant Peach , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , the BFG , The Witches , and Fantastic Mr Fox . The illustrations of Quentin Blake have also become synonymous with many of his works.

About Roald Dahl

• 1 Early Life
• 2 Education 
• 3 Travels and War Service
• 4 Post-War Life 
• 5 Later Life, Death, and Legacy
• 6 Famous Poems
• 7 Influences

Roald Dahl was born in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, in September 1916. His parents were Norwegian and had emigrated from Sarpsborg in the 1880s. The couple married in 1911, and Dahl was born five years later. His name was chosen in honor of the explorer Roald Amundsen.

Dahl’s early life was marked by  tragedy , with the death of his sister, Astri when she was seven years old. His father died only weeks later of pneumonia. Rather than taking her children back to Norway, Dahl’s mother chose to remain in Wales in order to give her children the best possible education.  

Education  

The young boy attended the Cathedral School in Llandaff, where he developed a reputation for mischief. He was eventually transferred to a boarding school in England called St Peter’s in Weston-super-Mare.

Dahl did not enjoy his time at St Peter’s. He yearned for home but kept his sadness to himself in order to not upset his mother. By the time he was 13, Dahl was experiencing the cruelty of other children at the Repton School in Derbyshire. He was mistreated by the other students and often suffered from beatings. His time at the school was extremely impactful. It would imbue him with a deep-seated hatred of corporal punishment and even cause him to question religion and God. In regard to his academics, he was not known as a very good writer. He did excel at sports, though, due in part to his height.

His time away from school was mostly spent with his family. He chronicled his happiest and most desperate times in the book  Boy: Tales of Childhood.  It is thought that experiences with a local chocolate factory during this time period were the inspiration for his third children’s book,  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Travels and War Service

Once his schooling was over, Dahl traveled to Newfoundland, where he hiked alongside the Pub Schools Exploring Society. He then got a job with the Shell Petroleum Company and was assigned to Mombasa, Kenya, and then later Tanzania.

During the years of WWII, Dahl was commissioned by the British army to lead a platoon of men. They were tasked with rounding up Germans living in Dar-es-Salaam. He later joined the Royal Air Force. On one particularly unfortunate night, Dahl was unable to land his plane and crashed in the desert. This experience also made it into his first published work, A Piece of Cake, a storytelling of his adventures in wartime.

His first children’s book was published a year later title,  The Gremlins.  Dahl’s military career was not yet over; he would go on to take part in a number of air battles, such as the Battle of Athens. He was eventually brought home, where he accepted an offer as assistant air attache at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. While in America, he met C.S. Forester, with whom he collaborated on a  short story . He later came to know Ian Fleming and David Ogilvy. Roald Dahl’s work led him to supply intelligence from Washington to then Prime Minister Winston Churchill. When he finally left the RAF in August of 1946, he was ranked as a squadron leader.

Post-War Life  

In the years after the war, Dahl married Patricia Neil. Together they had five children and were married for 30 years. Although he is known as a children’s author today, some of the stories for which Dahl was known at the time were written for adults. They were macabre in nature and brought him three wins of the Edgar Award. One such work was The Landlady .

Over his lifetime Dahl wrote more than 60  short stories , which have appeared in a number of his own collections and broader anthologies . Many of them were originally written for an array of magazines such as Ladies Home Journal , Playboy , The New Yorker , and Harper’s .

Later Life, Death, and Legacy

In the 60s, his work began to appear in movies when his story  Man from the South was filmed for  Alfred Hitchcock Presents.  The 60s also saw tragedy reenter Dahl’s life. This included the death of his daughter Olivia from measles. His book,  The BGF,  published in 1982, was dedicated to her memory. In 1965, Dahl’s wife, Patricia, suffered three cerebral aneurysms while pregnant with Dahl’s children. Shortly before the couple divorced in 1983, their life was dramatized in  The Patricia Neal Story.

Dahl soon remarried and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire, an honor he turned down. He died in November of 1990 at the age of 74 from cancer. He was buried in the cemetery at St Peter and St Paul’s Church in Buckinghamshire. 

To this day, an average of 10,000 schoolchildren a year visit the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, which was set up in 2005 in honor of Dahl’s iconic works. The charity was set up in 2001 by Liccy, his widow. Roald Dahl is remembered as one of the greatest writers of children’s literature of the 20th century. His books have been published in nearly 60 languages and have sold over 250 million copies.

Famous Poems

Roald Dahl has produced some of the most iconic poems in children’s literature and literature as a whole. Here are some of Roald Dahl’s most famous poems :

• ‘ The Three Little Pigs ‘
• ‘ Attention, Please! Attention, Please! ‘
• ‘ Augustus Gloop ‘
• ‘ Cinderella ‘
• Dirty Beasts

Roald Dahl took immense inspiration from some of the best children’s and adult writers, such as Lewis Carroll , Edward Lear , Beatrix Potter, Rudyard Kipling , and Charles Dickens .

Over the years, many famous writers have taken Dahl’s works and integrated parts of them into their own. These include the likes of Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Jacqueline Wilson, David Almond, and Francesca Simon.

Roald Dahl wrote many successful books, but Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is often considered his most iconic and lasting work. The humorous and imaginative work has been translated into 63 languages, and 200 million copies have been bought worldwide. The book has also been adapted into two feature films, one in 1971 and one in 2005.

Roald Dahl died on November 23, 1990, at the age of 74. He was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare cancer of the blood, in 1989. He died in Oxford, England, surrounded by his family. Dahl was also a fighter pilot during World War II but survived the conflict , and he wrote a memoir about his experiences called  Going Solo .

Roald Dahl didn’t have a disability himself, but he was involved in the development of the Wade-Dahl-Till (WDT) valve, a device to improve the treatment of hydrocephalus, in response to his son’s burden with the condition. Theo, Dahl’s son, suffered from hydrocephalus after being struck by a taxi at four months old. Dahl’s writing also features characters with disabilities, and he’s shown empathy towards those with various conditions.

Roald Dahl’s first book was The Gremlins , published in 1943. It was written for Walt Disney Productions as a promotional device for a feature-length animated movie that was never made. The book was later adapted into a short film in 1948. The book was a commercial success and helped to establish Dahl as a writer.

Roald Dahl had five children: Olivia, Tessa, Theo, Ophelia, and Lucy. Olivia died at the age of seven from measles encephalitis in 1962. Theo suffered from hydrocephalus after being involved in a motor accident. The other children, Tessa, Ophelia, and Lucy, had lived relatively private lives.

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Baldwin, Emma. "Roald Dahl: The Master of Children's Literature". Poem Analysis , https://poemanalysis.com/roald-dahl/biography/ . Accessed 7 September 2024.

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