Roald Dahl[a] (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British author of popularchildren's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartimefighter ace.[1][2] His books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide.[3][4] He has been called "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century".[5]
Dahl was born in Wales to affluentNorwegian immigrant parents, and lived for most of his life in England. He served in theRoyal Air Force (RAF) during theSecond World War. He became a fighter pilot and subsequently an intelligence officer, rising to the rank of actingwing commander. He rose to prominence as a writer in the 1940s with works for children and for adults, and he became one of the world's best-selling authors.[6][7] His awards for contribution to literature include the 1983World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and theBritish Book Awards' Children's Author of the Year in 1990. In 2008,The Times placed Dahl 16th on its list of "The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945".[8] In 2021,Forbes ranked him thetop-earning dead celebrity.[9]
At the age of 10 with his sisters Alfhild, Else and Asta.Cardiff, 1927
Roald Dahl was born in 1916 at Villa Marie, Fairwater Road, inLlandaff, Cardiff, Wales, to Norwegians Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl (née Hesselberg).[14][15] Dahl's father, a wealthyshipbroker andself-made man, had emigrated to Britain fromSarpsborg, Norway, and settled in Cardiff in the 1880s with his first wife, Frenchwoman Marie Beaurin-Gresser. They had two children together (Ellen Marguerite and Louis) before her death in 1907.[16] Roald's mother belonged to a well-established Norwegian family of lawyers, wealthy merchants, estate owners and priests in theNorwegian state church, and emigrated to Britain when she married his father in 1911. Dahl was named after Norwegian polar explorerRoald Amundsen.[17] His first language wasNorwegian, which he spoke at home with his parents and his sisters Astri, Alfhild, and Else. The children were raised in Norway'sLutheran state church, theChurch of Norway, and were baptised at theNorwegian Church, Cardiff.[18] His maternal grandmother Ellen Wallace was a granddaughter of the member of parliamentGeorg Wallace and a descendant of an early 18th-centuryScottish immigrant to Norway.[19]
Dahl's sister Astri died fromappendicitis, aged seven, in 1920 when Dahl was three years old, and his father died of pneumonia at the age of 57 several weeks later.[20] Later in the same year, his youngest sister, Asta, was born.[16] Upon his death, Harald Dahl left a fortune assessed for probate at £158,917,10s. 0d. (equivalent to £8,062,873 in 2023).[21][22][23] 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.[24] When he was six years old, Dahl met his idolBeatrix Potter, author ofThe Tale of Peter Rabbit featuring the mischievousPeter Rabbit, the first licensed fictional character.[25][26] The meeting, which took place at Potter's home,Hill Top in theLake District, north west England, was dramatised in the 2020 television film,Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse.[27][28]
Dahl first attendedThe Cathedral School, Llandaff. At the age of eight, he and four of his friends werecaned by the headmaster after putting a dead mouse in a jar ofgobstoppers at the local sweet shop,11 High Street,[5] which was owned by a "mean and loathsome" old woman named Mrs Pratchett.[5] The five boys named their prank the "Great Mouse Plot of 1924".[30] Mrs Pratchett inspired Dahl's creation of the cruel headmistressMiss Trunchbull inMatilda, and a prank, this time in a water jug belonging to Trunchbull, would also appear in the book.[31][32] Gobstoppers were a favourite sweet among British schoolboys between the two World Wars, and Dahl referred to them in his fictionalEverlasting Gobstopper which was featured inCharlie and the Chocolate Factory.[33]
Dahl transferred to St Peter's boarding school inWeston-super-Mare. His parents had wanted him to be educated at anEnglish public school, and this proved to be the nearest because of the regularferry link across theBristol Channel. Dahl's time at St Peter's was unpleasant; he was very homesick and wrote to his mother every week but never revealed his unhappiness to her. After her death in 1967, he learned that she had saved every one of his letters;[34] they were broadcast in abridged form as BBC Radio 4'sBook of the Week in 2016 to mark the centenary of his birth.[35] Dahl wrote about his time at St Peter's in his autobiographyBoy: Tales of Childhood.[36] Excelling atconkers—a traditional autumnal children's game in Britain and Ireland played using the seeds ofhorse chestnut trees—Dahl recollected, "at the ages of eight, nine and ten, conkers brought sunshine to our lives during the dreary autumn term".[37]
From 1929, when he was 13, Dahl attendedRepton School inDerbyshire. Dahl disliked thehazing and described an environment of ritual cruelty and status domination, with younger boys having to act aspersonal servants for older boys, frequently subject to terrible beatings. His biographer Donald Sturrock described these violent experiences in Dahl's early life.[38] Dahl expresses some of these darker experiences in his writings, which is also marked by his hatred of cruelty andcorporal punishment.[39]
According to Dahl's autobiography,Boy: Tales of Childhood, a friend named Michael was viciously caned by headmasterGeoffrey Fisher. Writing in that same book, Dahl reflected: "All through my school life I was appalled by the fact that masters and senior boys were allowed literally to wound other boys, and sometimes quite severely... I couldn't get over it. I never have got over it."[40] Fisher was later appointedArchbishop of Canterbury, and hecrownedQueen Elizabeth II in 1953. However, according to Dahl's biographerJeremy Treglown,[41] the caning took place in May 1933, a year after Fisher had left Repton; the headmaster was in factJ. T. Christie, Fisher's successor as headmaster. Dahl said the incident caused him to "have doubts about religion and even about God".[42] He viewed the brutality of the caning as being the result of the headmaster's enmity towards children, an attitude Dahl would later attribute to theGrand High Witch in his dark fantasyThe Witches, with the novel's main antagonist exclaiming that "children are rrreee-volting!".[37]
Dahl was never seen as a particularly talented writer in his school years, with one of his English teachers writing in his school report, "I have never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended."[43] He was exceptionally tall, reaching 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) in adult life.[44] Dahl played sports includingcricket,football andgolf, and was made captain of thesquash team.[45] As well as having a passion for literature, he developed an interest in photography and often carried a camera with him.[20]
During his years at Repton, theCadbury chocolate company occasionally sent boxes of new chocolates to the school to be tested by the pupils.[46] Dahl dreamed of inventing a new chocolate bar that would win the praise ofMr Cadbury himself; this inspired him in writing his third children's book,Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and to refer to chocolate in other children's books.[47]
Throughout his childhood and adolescent years, Dahl spent most of his summer holidays with his mother's family in Norway. He wrote about many happy memories from those visits inBoy: Tales of Childhood, such as when he replaced the tobacco in his half-sister's fiancé's pipe with goat droppings.[48] He noted only one unhappy memory of his holidays in Norway: at around the age of eight, he had to have hisadenoids removed by a doctor.[49] His childhood and first job selling kerosene inMidsomer Norton and surrounding villages inSomerset are subjects inBoy: Tales of Childhood.[50]
In July 1934, Dahl joined theShell Petroleum Company. Following four years of training in the United Kingdom, he was assigned first toMombasa, Kenya, then toDar es Salaam in the British colony ofTanganyika (now part of Tanzania).[53] Dahl explains in his autobiographyGoing Solo that only three young Englishmen ran the Shell company in the territory, of which he was the youngest and junior.[54] Along with the only two other Shell employees in the entire territory, he lived in luxury in the Shell House outside Dar es Salaam, with a cook and personal servants. While out on assignments supplying oil to customers across Tanganyika, he encounteredblack mamba snakes and lions, among other wildlife.[53]
In August 1939, as the Second World War loomed, the British made plans to round up the hundreds ofGermans living inDar-es-Salaam. Dahl was commissioned as alieutenant into theKing's African Rifles, commanding a platoon ofAskari men, indigenous troops who were serving in the colonial army.[55]
In November 1939, Dahl joined theRoyal Air Force (RAF) as anaircraftman with service number 774022.[56] After a 600-mile (970 km) car journey from Dar es Salaam toNairobi, he was accepted for flight training with sixteen other men, of whom only three survived the war. With seven hours and 40 minutes experience in aDe Havilland Tiger Moth, he flew solo;[57] Dahl enjoyed watching the wildlife of Kenya during his flights. He continued to advanced flying training in Iraq, atRAF Habbaniya, 50 miles (80 km) west ofBaghdad. Following six months' training onHawker Harts, Dahl wascommissioned as apilot officer on 24 August 1940, and was judged ready to join asquadron and face the enemy.[56][58]
Dahl was flying aGloster Gladiator when he crash landed in the Libyan desert.
He was assigned toNo. 80 Squadron RAF, flying obsoleteGloster Gladiators, the lastbiplanefighter aircraft used by the RAF. Dahl was surprised to find that he would not receive any specialised training inaerial combat or in flying Gladiators. On 19 September 1940, Dahl and another pilot were ordered to fly their Gladiators by stages from Abu Sueir (nearIsmailia, in Egypt) to 80 Squadron's forwardairstrip 30 miles (48 km) south ofMersa Matruh. On the final leg, they could not find the airstrip and, running low on fuel and with night approaching, Dahl was forced to attempt alanding in the desert.[59] The undercarriage hit a boulder and the aircraft crashed. Dahl's skull was fractured and his nose was smashed; he was temporarily blinded.[60] He managed to drag himself away from the wreckage and lost consciousness. His colleague, Douglas McDonald, had landed safely and was able to comfort Dahl until they were rescued.[61] He wrote about the crash in his first published work.[60] Dahl came to believe that the head injury he sustained in the crash resulted in his creative genius.[62]
Dahl was rescued and taken to afirst-aid post inMersa Matruh, where he regained consciousness, but not his sight. He remained blind for six weeks due to massive swelling of the brain.[63] He was transported by train to theRoyal Navy hospital inAlexandria. There he fell in and out of love with a nurse, Mary Welland. An RAF inquiry into the crash revealed that the location to which he had been told to fly was completely wrong, and he had mistakenly been sent instead into theno man's land between the Allied and Italian forces.[64]
AHawker Hurricane Mk 1, the aircraft type in which Dahl engaged in aerial combat over Greece
In February 1941, Dahl was discharged from the hospital and deemed fully fit for flying duties. By this time, 80 Squadron had been transferred to theGreek campaign and based atEleusina, nearAthens. The squadron was now equipped withHawker Hurricanes. Dahl flew a replacement Hurricane across the Mediterranean Sea in April 1941, after seven hours' experience flying Hurricanes. By this stage in the Greek campaign, the RAF had only 18 combat aircraft in Greece: 14 Hurricanes and fourBristol Blenheim light bombers. Dahl flew in his first aerial combat on 15 April 1941, while flying alone over the city ofChalcis. He attacked sixJunkers Ju 88s that were bombing ships and shot one down. The next day, he shot down another Ju 88.[65]
On 20 April 1941, Dahl took part in an event he called theBattle of Athens, alongside the highest-scoring British Commonwealth ace of World War II,Pat Pattle, and Dahl's friendDavid Coke. Of 12 Hurricanes involved, five were shot down and four of their pilots killed, including Pattle. Greek observers on the ground counted 22 German aircraft downed, but because of the confusion of the aerial engagement, none of the pilots knew which aircraft they had shot down. Dahl described it as "an endless blur of enemy fighters whizzing towards me from every side".[66]
In May, as the Germans were pressing on Athens, Dahl was evacuated to Egypt. His squadron was reassembled inHaifa to take part inOperation Exporter. From there, Dahl flew sorties every day for a period of four weeks, shooting down aVichy French Air ForcePotez 63 on 8 June and another Ju 88 on 15 June. In a memoir, Dahl recounts in detail an attack by him and his fellow Hurricane pilots on the Vichy-heldRayak airfield. He says that as he and his fellow Hurricane pilots swept in:
... low over the field at midday we saw to our astonishment a bunch of girls in brightly coloured cotton dresses standing out by the planes with glasses in their hands having drinks with the French pilots, and I remember seeing bottles of wine standing on the wing of one of the planes as we went swooshing over. It was a Sunday morning and the Frenchmen were evidently entertaining their girlfriends and showing off their aircraft to them, which was a very French thing to do in the middle of a war at a front-line aerodrome. Every one of us held our fire on that first pass over the flying field and it was wonderfully comical to see the girls all dropping their wine glasses and galloping in their high heels for the door of the nearest building. We went round again, but this time we were no longer a surprise and they were ready for us with their ground defences, and I am afraid that our chivalry resulted in damage to several of our Hurricanes, including my own. But we destroyed five of their planes on the ground.[67]
Despite this somewhat light-hearted account, Dahl also noted that, ultimately, Vichy forces killed four of the nine Hurricane pilots in his squadron. Describing the Vichy forces as "disgusting", he stated that "... thousands of lives were lost, and I for one have never forgiven the Vichy French for the unnecessary slaughter they caused."[68]
When he began to get severe headaches that caused him to black out, he was invalided home to Britain where he stayed with his mother inBuckinghamshire.[69] Although at this time Dahl was only a pilot officer on probation, in September 1941 he was simultaneously confirmed as apilot officer and promoted to war substantiveflying officer.[70]
Diplomat, writer and intelligence officer
After being invalided home, Dahl was posted to an RAF training camp inUxbridge. He attempted to recover his health enough to become an instructor.[71] In late March 1942, while in London, he met theUnder-Secretary of State for Air, MajorHarold Balfour, at his club. Impressed by Dahl's war record and conversational abilities, Balfour appointed the young man as assistant air attaché at theBritish Embassy in Washington, D.C. Initially resistant, Dahl was finally persuaded by Balfour to accept, and took passage on theMS Batory from Glasgow a few days later. He arrived in Halifax, Canada, on 14 April, after which he took a sleeper train toMontreal.[72]
Coming from war-starved Britain (in what was a wartime period ofrationing in the United Kingdom), Dahl was amazed by the wealth of food and amenities to be had in North America.[73] Arriving in Washington a week later, Dahl found he liked the atmosphere of the US capital. He shared a house with another attaché at 1610 34th Street, NW, inGeorgetown. But after ten days in his new posting, Dahl strongly disliked it, feeling he had taken on "a most ungodly unimportant job".[74] He later explained, "I'd just come from the war. People were getting killed. I had been flying around, seeing horrible things. Now, almost instantly, I found myself in the middle of a pre-war cocktail party in America."[75]
Dahl was unimpressed by his office in the British Air Mission, attached to the embassy. He was also unimpressed by the ambassador,Lord Halifax, with whom he sometimes played tennis and whom he described as "a courtly English gentleman". Dahl socialised with Charles E. Marsh, a Texas publisher and oilman, at his house at 2136 R Street, NW, and the Marsh country estate in Virginia.[76][77] As part of his duties as assistant air attaché, Dahl was to help neutralise the isolationist views still held by many Americans by giving pro-British speeches and discussing his war service; the United States had entered the war only the previous December, following theattack on Pearl Harbor.[58]
At this time Dahl met the noted British novelistC. S. Forester, who was also working to aid the British war effort. Forester worked for theBritish Ministry of Information and was writing propaganda for theAllied cause, mainly for American consumption.[78]The Saturday Evening Post had asked Forester to write a story based on Dahl's flying experiences; Forester asked Dahl to write down some RAF anecdotes so that he could shape them into a story. After Forester read what Dahl had given him, he decided to publish the story exactly as Dahl had written it.[79] In reality a number of changes were made to the original manuscript before publication.[80] He originally titled the article as "A Piece of Cake" but the magazine changed it to "Shot Down Over Libya" to make it sound more dramatic, although Dahl had not been shot down; it was published on 1 August 1942 issue of thePost. Dahl was promoted toflight lieutenant (war-substantive) in August 1942.[81] Later he worked with such other well-known British officers asIan Fleming (who later published the popularJames Bond series) andDavid Ogilvy, promoting Britain's interests and message in the US and combating the "America First" movement.[58]
This work introduced Dahl to espionage and the activities of the Canadian spymasterWilliam Stephenson, known by the codename "Intrepid."[82] During the war, Dahl supplied intelligence from Washington to Prime MinisterWinston Churchill. As Dahl later said: "My job was to try to help Winston to get on withFDR, and tell Winston what was in the old boy's mind."[79] Dahl also supplied intelligence to Stephenson and his organisation, known asBritish Security Coordination, which was part ofMI6.[77] Dahl was once sent back to Britain by British Embassy officials, supposedly for misconduct—"I got booted out by the big boys", he said. Stephenson promptly sent him back to Washington—with a promotion towing commander rank.[83] Toward the end of the war, Dahl wrote some of the history of the secret organisation. He and Stephenson remained friends for decades after the war.[84]
Upon the war's conclusion, Dahl held the rank of a temporary wing commander (substantive flight lieutenant). Owing to the severity of his injuries from the 1940 accident, he was pronounced unfit for further service and was invalided out of the RAF in August 1946. He left the service with the substantive rank ofsquadron leader.[85] His record of five aerial victories, qualifying him as aflying ace, has been confirmed by post-war research and cross-referenced in Axis records. It is possible that he shot down more aircraft, for example on 20 April 1941 when the Germans lost several aircraft.[86]
Dahl married American actressPatricia Neal on 2 July 1953 atTrinity Church in New York City. Their marriage lasted for 30 years and they had five children:
On 5 December 1960, four-month-old Theo was severely injured when his baby carriage was struck by a taxicab in New York City. For a time, he suffered fromhydrocephalus. As a result, Dahl became involved in the development of what became known as the "Wade-Dahl-Till" (or WDT) valve, a device to improve theshunt used to alleviate the condition.[89][90] The valve was a collaboration between Dahl, hydraulic engineer Stanley Wade, and London'sGreat Ormond Street Hospital neurosurgeon Kenneth Till, and was used successfully on almost 3,000 children around the world.[91]
In November 1962, Dahl's daughterOlivia died ofmeasles encephalitis, age seven. Her death left Dahl "limp with despair", and feeling guilty about not having been able to do anything for her.[91] Dahl subsequently became a proponent ofimmunisation—writing "Measles: A Dangerous Illness" in 1988 in response to measles cases in the UK—and dedicated his 1982 bookThe BFG to his daughter.[92][93] After Olivia's death and a meeting with a Church official, Dahl came to view Christianity as a sham.[94] In mourning he had sought spiritual guidance fromGeoffrey Fisher, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, and was dismayed being told that, although Olivia was in Paradise, her beloved dog Rowley would never join her there.[94] Dahl recalled years later:
I wanted to ask him how he could be so absolutely sure that other creatures did not get the same special treatment as us. I sat there wondering if this great and famous churchman really knew what he was talking about and whether he knew anything at all about God or heaven, and if he didn't, then who in the world did?[94]
In 1965, Dahl's wife Patricia Neal suffered three burstcerebral aneurysms while pregnant with their fifth child, Lucy. Dahl took control of her rehabilitation over the next months; Neal had to re-learn to talk and walk, but she managed to return to her acting career.[95] This period of their lives was dramatised in the filmThe Patricia Neal Story (1981), in which the couple were played byGlenda Jackson andDirk Bogarde.[96]
Dahl (age 72) signing books in Amsterdam, Netherlands in October 1988
In 1972, Roald Dahl metFelicity d'Abreu Crosland, niece of Lt.-Col. Francis D'Abreu who was married to Margaret Bowes Lyon, the first cousin of theQueen Mother, while Felicity was working as a set designer on an advert for Maxim coffee with the author's then wife, Patricia Neal.[97] Soon after the pair were introduced, they began an 11-year affair.[97] In 1983 Neal and Dahl divorced and Dahl married Felicity,[98][99] atBrixton Town Hall,south London. Felicity (known as Liccy) gave up her job and moved intoGipsy House,Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire, which had been Dahl's home since 1954.[100]
In August 1983, Dahl reviewed Australian author Tony Clifton'sGod Cried, a picture book about the siege of West Beirut by the Israeli army during the1982 Lebanon War.[101] The article, in which Dahl stated the Jews had never "switched so rapidly from much-pitied victims to barbarous murderers", appeared in theLiterary Review and was the subject of media comment and criticism at the time.[102] Dahl wrote that Clifton's book would make readers "violently anti-Israeli", saying, "I am not anti-Semitic. I am anti-Israel."[103] In 1990, Dahl spoke again on the Lebanon invasion, stating "they killed 22,000 civilians when they bombed Beirut. It was very much hushed up in the newspapers because they are primarily Jewish-owned. I'm certainly anti-Israeli and I've become antisemitic in as much as that you get a Jewish person in another country like England strongly supportingZionism. I think they should see both sides. It's the same old thing: we all know about Jews and the rest of it. There aren't any non-Jewish publishers anywhere, they control the media—jolly clever thing to do".[104] His comments invoked responses from Jewish colleagues and friends, with the philosopher SirIsaiah Berlin, stating, "I thought he might say anything. Could have been pro-Arab or pro-Jew. There was no consistent line. He was a man who followed whims, which meant he would blow up in one direction, so to speak",[103] while Amelia Foster, Jewish director of theRoald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden, said, "He had a childish reaction to what was going on in Israel. Dahl wanted to provoke, as he always provoked at dinner."[105] As a consequence of his comments, in 2014, theRoyal Mint decided not to produce a coin to commemorate the centenary of Dahl's birth.[106] In 2020, Dahl's family published a statement on the official Roald Dahl website apologising for his antisemitism.[107]
In the 1986New Years Honours List, Dahl was offered an appointment toOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), but turned it down. He reportedly wanted aknighthood so that his wife would be Lady Dahl.[108][109] Dahl's last significant involvement in medical charities during his lifetime was withdyslexia. In 1990, the year which saw the UN launch International Literacy Year, Dahl assisted with the British Dyslexia Association's Awareness Campaign.[110] That year saw Dahl write one of his last children's books,The Vicar of Nibbleswicke, which features a vicar who has a fictitious form of dyslexia that causes him to pronounce words backwards. Called "a comic tale in the best Dahl tradition of craziness" byWaterstones, Dahl donated the rights of the book to theDyslexia Institute in London.[110][111]
In 2012, Dahl was featured in the list ofThe New Elizabethans to mark thediamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. A panel of seven academics, journalists and historians named Dahl among the group of people in Britain "whose actions during the reign of Elizabeth II have had a significant impact on lives in these islands and given the age its character".[112] In September 2016, Dahl's daughter Lucy received the BBC'sBlue PeterGold badge in his honour, the first time it had ever been awarded posthumously.[113]
Writing
Roald Dahl's story "The Devious Bachelor" was illustrated by Frederick Siebel when it was published inCollier's (September 1953).
Dahl's first published work, inspired by a meeting withC. S. Forester, was "A Piece of Cake", on 1 August 1942. The story, about his wartime adventures, was bought byThe Saturday Evening Post for US$1,000 (equivalent to $19,000 in 2024) and published under the title "Shot Down Over Libya".[114]
Dahl also had a successful parallel career as the writer of macabre adult short stories, which often blended humour and innocence with surprising plot twists.[119] TheMystery Writers of America presented Dahl with threeEdgar Awards for his work, and many were originally written for American magazines such asCollier's ("The Collector's Item" wasCollier's Star Story of the week for 4 September 1948),Ladies' Home Journal,Harper's,Playboy andThe New Yorker.[120] Works such asKiss Kiss subsequently collected Dahl's stories into anthologies, and gained significant popularity. Dahl wrotemore than 60 short stories; they have appeared in numerous collections, some only being published in book form after his death. His three Edgar Awards were given for: in 1954, the collectionSomeone Like You; in 1959, the story "The Landlady"; and in 1980, the episode ofTales of the Unexpected based on "Skin".[119]
One of his more famous adult stories, "The Smoker", also known as "Man from the South", was filmed twice as both 1960 and 1985 episodes ofAlfred Hitchcock Presents, filmed as a 1979 episode ofTales of the Unexpected, and also adapted intoQuentin Tarantino's segment of the filmFour Rooms (1995).[121] This oft-anthologised classic concerns a man in Jamaica who wagers with visitors in an attempt to claim the fingers from their hands. The original 1960 version in the Hitchcock series starsSteve McQueen andPeter Lorre.[121]Five additional Dahl stories were used in the Hitchcock series. Dahl was credited with teleplay for two episodes, and four of his episodes were directed byAlfred Hitchcock himself, an example of which was "Lamb to the Slaughter" (1958).[122]
Dahl acquired a traditionalRomanichalvardo in the 1960s, and the family used it as a playhouse for his children at home inGreat Missenden, Buckinghamshire. He later used the vardo as a writing room, where he wroteDanny, the Champion of the World in 1975.[123] Dahl incorporated a similar caravan into the main plot of the book, in which the young English boy, Danny, and his father, William (played byJeremy Irons in the film adaptation), live in a vardo.[24] Many other scenes and characters from Great Missenden are reflected in his work. For example, the village library was the inspiration for Mrs Phelps' library inMatilda, where the title character devours classic literature by the age of four.[124]
Some of Dahl's short stories are supposed to be extracts from the diary of his (fictional) Uncle Oswald, a rich gentleman whose sexual exploits form the subject of these stories.[128] In his novelMy Uncle Oswald, the uncle engages a temptress to seduce 20th century geniuses and royalty with a love potion secretly added to chocolate truffles made by Dahl's favourite chocolate shop,Prestat of Piccadilly, London.[128]Memories with Food at Gipsy House, written with his wife Felicity and published posthumously in 1991, was a mixture of recipes, family reminiscences and Dahl's musings on favourite subjects such as chocolate, onions and claret.[129][130]
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.[131] In 1994, the English languageaudiobook recording of the book was provided byMonty Python memberMichael Palin.[132] ScreenwriterRichard Curtis adapted it into a 2015 BBC television comedy film,Roald Dahl's Esio Trot, featuringDustin Hoffman andJudi Dench as the couple.[133]
Written in 1990 and published posthumously in 1991,Roald Dahl's Guide to Railway Safety was one of the last things he ever wrote.[134] In a response to rising levels of train-related fatalities involving children, theBritish Railways Board had asked Dahl to write the text of the booklet, andQuentin Blake to illustrate it, to help young people enjoy using the railways safely.[134] The booklet is structured as a conversation with children, and it was distributed toprimary school pupils in Britain. According to children's literature critic Deborah Cogan Thacker, Dahl's tendency in his children's books is to "put child characters in powerful positions" and so, the idea of "talking down" to children was always an anathema to him, therefore Dahl, in the introduction of the booklet, states; "I must now regretfully become one of those unpopular giants who tells you WHAT TO DO and WHAT NOT TO DO. This is something I have never done in any of my books."[134]
Children's fiction
"He [Dahl] was mischievous. A grown-up being mischievous. He addresses you, a child, as somebody who knows about the world. He was a grown-up—and he was bigger than most—who is on your side. That must have something to do with it."
—IllustratorQuentin Blake on the lasting appeal of Dahl's children's books.[5]
Dahl's children's works are usually told from the point of view of a child. They typically involve adultvillains who hate and mistreat children, and feature at least one "good" adult to counteract the villain(s).[5] These stock characters are possibly a reference to the abuse that Dahl stated that he experienced in theboarding schools he attended.[5] In a biography of Dahl, Matthew Dennison wrote that "his writing frequently included protests against unfairness".[135] Dahl's books see the triumph of the child; children's book critic Amanda Craig said, "He was unequivocal that it is the good, young and kind who triumph over the old, greedy and the wicked."[13] Anna Leskiewicz inThe Telegraph wrote, "It's often suggested that Dahl's lasting appeal is a result of his exceptional talent for wriggling his way into children's fantasies and fears, and laying them out on the page with anarchic delight. Adult villains are drawn in terrifying detail, before they are exposed as liars and hypocrites, and brought tumbling down with retributive justice, either by a sudden magic or the superior acuity of the children they mistreat."[131]
While his whimsical fantasy stories feature an underlying warm sentiment, they are often juxtaposed with grotesque,darkly comic and sometimes harshly violent scenarios.[10][12]The Witches,George's Marvellous Medicine andMatilda are examples of this formula.The BFG follows, with the good giant (the BFG or "Big Friendly Giant") representing the "good adult" archetype and the other giants being the "bad adults". This formula is also somewhat evident in Dahl's film script forChitty Chitty Bang Bang. Class-conscious themes also surface in works such asFantastic Mr Fox andDanny, the Champion of the World where the unpleasant wealthy neighbours are outwitted.[79][136]
Dahl also features characters who are very fat, usually children. Augustus Gloop, Bruce Bogtrotter and Bruno Jenkins are a few of these characters, although an enormous woman named Aunt Sponge features inJames and the Giant Peach and the nasty farmer Boggis inFantastic Mr Fox is an enormously fat character. All of these characters (with the possible exception of Bruce Bogtrotter) are either villains or simply unpleasant gluttons. They are usually punished for this: Augustus Gloop drinks fromWilly Wonka's chocolate river, disregarding the adults who tell him not to, and falls in, getting sucked up a pipe and nearly being turned into fudge. InMatilda, Bruce Bogtrotter steals cake from the evil headmistress,Miss Trunchbull, and is forced to eat a gigantic chocolate cake in front of the school; when he unexpectedly succeeds at this, Trunchbull smashes the empty plate over his head. InThe Witches, Bruno Jenkins is lured by the witches (whose leader is theGrand High Witch) into their convention with the promise of chocolate, before they turn him into a mouse.[137] Aunt Sponge is flattened by a giant peach. When Dahl was a boy his mother used to tell him and his sisters tales about trolls and other mythical Norwegian creatures, and some of his children's books contain references or elements inspired by these stories, such as the giants inThe BFG, the fox family inFantastic Mr Fox and the trolls inThe Minpins.[138]
In 1972,Eleanor Cameron, also a children's book author, published an article inThe Horn Book criticisingCharlie and the Chocolate Factory and its depiction of the African-derivedOompa-Loompas, who "have never been given the opportunity of any life outside of the chocolate factory".[139] In 1973, Dahl posted a reply, calling Cameron's accusations "insensitive" and "monstrous".[140] The debate between the two authors sparked much discussion and a number of letters to the editor.[141] In 1991,Michael Dirda also discussed other criticisms of Dahl's writing, including his alleged sexism, of which Dirda wrote, "The Witches verges on a general misogyny."[142] In 1998,Michele Landsberg analysed the alleged issues in Dahl's work and concluded that, "Throughout his work, evil, domineering, smelly, fat, ugly women are his favourite villains."[143] In 2008,Una Mullally argued that there are feminist messages in Dahl's work, even if they may be obscured, "The Witches offers up plenty of feminist complexities. The witches themselves are terrifying and vile things, and always women... The book is often viewed as sexist, but that assessment ignores one of the heroines of the story, the child narrator's grandmother."[144]
Receiving the 1983World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, Dahl encouraged his children and his readers to let their imagination run free. His daughter Lucy stated "his spirit was so large and so big he taught us to believe in magic."[79] She said her father later told her that if they had simply said goodnight after a bedtime story, he assumed it wasn't a good idea. But if they begged him to continue, he knew he was on to something, and the story would sometimes turn into a book.[145]
Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.
— Roald Dahl,The Minpins
Scarecrow ofthe BFG (the Big Friendly Giant) at a festival in Yorkshire; many of Dahl's new words are spoken by the character.[146]
Dahl was also famous for his inventive, playful use of language, which was a key element to his writing. He invented over 500 new words by scribbling down his words before swapping letters around and adoptingspoonerisms andmalapropisms.[146][147] The lexicographer Susan Rennie stated that Dahl built his new words on familiar sounds, adding:
He didn't always explain what his words meant, but children can work them out because they often sound like a word they know, and he loved usingonomatopoeia. For example, you know that somethinglickswishy anddelumptious is good to eat, whereas somethinguckyslush orrotsome is definitely not! He also used sounds that children love to say, likesquishous andsquizzle, orfizzlecrump andfizzwiggler.[147]
As marketing director ofPenguin Books in the 1980s,Barry Cunningham travelled the UK with Dahl on a promotional book tour, during which he asked Dahl what was the secret of his success; Dahl responded by saying that "the thing you've got to remember, is that humour is delayed fear, laughter is delayed fear."[148] Cunningham later recollected, "if you look at the way he uses humour and the way that children use humour, perhaps sometimes it's the only weapon they have against terrifying circumstances or people. That's very indicative of his stories and the style of those stories."[148]
A UK television special titledRoald Dahl's Revolting Rule Book, which was hosted byRichard E. Grant and aired onITV on 22 September 2007, commemorated Dahl's 90th birthday and also celebrated his impact as a children's author in popular culture.[149] It also featured eight main rules he applied on all his children's books:
Just add chocolate
Adults can be scary
Bad things happen
Revenge is sweet
Keep a wicked sense of humour
Pick perfect pictures
Films are fun...but books are better!
Food is fun!
Well dressing inEtwall, Derbyshire, depicting various characters from Dahl's stories, marking the centenary of his birth
In 2016, marking the centenary of Dahl's birth, Rennie compiledThe Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary which includes many of his invented words and their meaning.[147] Rennie commented that some of Dahl's words have already escaped his world, for example,Scrumdiddlyumptious: "Food that is utterly delicious".[147] In his poetry, Dahl gives a humorous re-interpretation of well-known nursery rhymes andfairy tales, parodying the narratives and providing surprise endings in place of the traditional happily-ever-after. Dahl's collection of poems,Revolting Rhymes, is recorded inaudiobook form, and narrated by actorAlan Cumming.[150]
In 2023,Puffin Books, which holds the rights to all Dahl's children's books, published editions which includedhundreds of revisions to the text at the advice ofsensitivity readers.[151] Changes included the use of gender-neutral words and phrases such as "parents" or "siblings" rather than "boys and girls", "mothers and fathers", the word "fat" being replaced with terms such as "enormous" or "large", and words like "crazy" and "mad" were regularly removed.[152] The move was supported by a number of authors, including Society of Authors chairJoanne Harris andDiego Jourdan Pereira atWriter's Digest, but it drew many more critical responses.[153][154] Several public figures, including then-Prime MinisterRishi Sunak and authorSalman Rushdie, spoke out against the changes.[155][156][157] It was reported that when Dahl was alive, he had spoken out very strongly against any changes ever being made to any of his books.[158][159] On 23 February 2023, Puffin announced it would release an unedited selection of Dahl's children's books as 'The Roald Dahl Classic Collection', stating, "We've listened to the debate over the past week which has reaffirmed the extraordinary power of Roald Dahl's books" and "recognise the importance of keeping Dahl's classic texts in print".[160][161]
Screenplays
For a brief period in the 1960s, Dahl wrote screenplays. Two, theJames Bond filmYou Only Live Twice andChitty Chitty Bang Bang, were adaptations of novels by Ian Fleming.[162][163] Dahl also began adapting his own novelCharlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was completed and rewritten byDavid Seltzer after Dahl failed to meet deadlines, and produced as the filmWilly Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). Dahl later disowned the film, saying he was "disappointed" because "he thought it placed too much emphasis on Willy Wonka and not enough on Charlie".[164] He was also "infuriated" by the deviations in the plot devised by David Seltzer in his draft of the screenplay. This resulted in his refusal for any more versions of the book to be made in his lifetime.[165]
Interior ofDylan Thomas's writing shed; Dahl made a replica of it in his own garden inGreat Missenden, where he wrote many of his stories.
A major part of Dahl's literary influences stemmed from his childhood. In his younger days, he was an avid reader, especially awed by fantastic tales of heroism and triumph. He met his idol,Beatrix Potter, when he was six years old.[28] His other favourite authors includedRudyard Kipling,Charles Dickens,William Makepeace Thackeray and former Royal Navy officerFrederick Marryat, and their works made a lasting mark on his life and writing.[167] He named Marryat'sMr Midshipman Easy as his favourite novel.[146] Joe Sommerlad inThe Independent writes, "Dahl's novels are often dark affairs, filled with cruelty, bereavement andDickensian adults prone to gluttony and sadism. The author clearly felt compelled to warn his young readers about the evils of the world, taking the lesson from earlier fairy tales that they could stand hard truths and would be the stronger for hearing them."[168]
Dahl was also influenced byLewis Carroll'sAlice's Adventures in Wonderland. The "Drink Me" episode inAlice inspired a scene in Dahl'sGeorge's Marvellous Medicine where a tyrannical grandmother drinks a potion and is blown up to the size of a farmhouse.[168] Finding too many distractions in his house, Dahl remembered the poetDylan Thomas had found a peaceful shed to write in close to home. Dahl travelled to visit Thomas's hut in Carmarthenshire, Wales in the 1950s and, after taking a look inside, decided to make a replica of it to write in.[169] Appearing on BBC Radio 4'sDesert Island Discs in October 1979, Dahl named Thomas "the greatest poet of our time", and as one of his eight chosen records selected Thomas's reading of his poem "Fern Hill".[170]
Dahl liked ghost stories, and claimed thatTrolls byJonas Lie was one of the finest ghost stories ever written. While he was still a youngster, his mother, Sofie Dahl, related traditional Norwegian myths and legends from her native homeland to Dahl and his sisters. Dahl always maintained that his mother and her stories had a strong influence on his writing. In one interview, he mentioned: "She was a great teller of tales. Her memory was prodigious and nothing that ever happened to her in her life was forgotten."[171] When Dahl started writing and publishing his famous books for children, he included a grandmother character inThe Witches, and later said that she was based directly on his own mother as a tribute.[172][173]
The British television series,Tales of the Unexpected, originally aired onITV between 1979 and 1988.[177] The series was released to tie in with Dahl'sshort story anthology of the same name, which had introduced readers to many motifs that were common in his writing.[125] The series was an anthology of different tales, initially based on Dahl's short stories.[125] The stories were sometimes sinister, sometimes wryly comedic and usually had a twist ending. Dahl introduced on camera all the episodes of the first two series, which bore the full titleRoald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected.[178]
In 2002, one ofCardiff Bay's modern landmarks, the Oval Basin plaza, was renamedRoald Dahl Plass.Plass is Norwegian for "place" or "square", alluding to the writer's Norwegian roots. There have also been calls from the public for a permanent statue of him to be erected inCardiff.[185] In 2016, the city celebrated the centenary of Dahl's birth inLlandaff. Welsh Arts organisations, includingNational Theatre Wales,Wales Millennium Centre andLiterature Wales, came together for a series of events, titled Roald Dahl 100, including a Cardiff-wide City of the Unexpected, which marked his legacy.[6]
Dahl's charitable commitments in the fields ofneurology,haematology andliteracy during his life have been continued by his widow since his death, throughRoald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity, formerly known as the Roald Dahl Foundation.[129] The charity provides care and support to seriously ill children and young people throughout Britain.[186] In June 2005, theRoald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in the author's home villageGreat Missenden was officially opened byCherie Blair, wife of then British Prime MinisterTony Blair, to celebrate the work of Roald Dahl and advance his work in literacy education.[187] Over 50,000 visitors from abroad, mainly from Australia, Japan, the United States and Germany, travel to the village museum every year.[188]
In 2008, the UK charityBooktrust andChildren's LaureateMichael Rosen inaugurated The Roald Dahl Funny Prize, an annual award to authors of humorous children's fiction.[189][190] On 14 September 2009 (the day after what would have been Dahl's 93rd birthday) the firstblue plaque in his honour was unveiled in Llandaff.[191] Rather than commemorating his place of birth, however, the plaque was erected on the wall of the former sweet shop (and site of "The Great Mouse Plot of 1924") that features in the first part of his autobiographyBoy. It was unveiled by his widowFelicity and son Theo.[191] In 2018,Weston-super-Mare, the town described by Dahl as a "seedy seaside resort", unveiled a blue plaque dedicated to him, on the site of the since-demolished boarding school Dahl attended, St Peter's.[192] The anniversary of Dahl's birthday on 13 September is celebrated as "Roald Dahl Day" in Africa, the United Kingdom and Latin America.[193][194][195]
"Arguably the Shakespeare of children's literature, fromFantastic Mr Fox toMatilda andThe BFG, filmmakers and animators are still drawing from the enormous vat of material he created."
Dahl's influence has extended beyond literary figures. For instance, the film directorTim Burton recalled from childhood "the second layer [afterDr. Seuss] of connecting to a writer who gets the idea of the modern fable—and the mixture of light and darkness, and not speaking down to kids, and the kind of politically incorrect humour that kids get. I've always liked that, and it's shaped everything I've felt that I've done."[199]Steven Spielberg readThe BFG to his children when they were young, stating the book celebrates the fact that it's OK to be different as well as to have an active imagination: "It's very important that we preserve the tradition of allowing young children to run free with their imaginations and magic and imagination are the same thing."[200] ActressScarlett Johansson namedFantastic Mr Fox one of the five books that made a difference to her.[201]
Dahl has an incredibly distinctive style: hissubversive, unpredictable plots, musical prose andcaustic wit are impossible to imitate. And yet his stories have proved astonishingly malleable. Often adapted by equally idiosyncratic writers and directors, when translated onto stage and screen, his works seamlessly take on the impression of their new maker. Like in many of his stories, Dahl offers a narrative where troublemaking is rewarded, and games and tricks are more successful than following rules. Perhaps this, more than anything, is the reason why Dahl's stories excite the imagination of so many adults and children, and why so many storytellers across stage and screen can't resist remaking his tales in their own individual style. Right across his body of work, playfulness and inventiveness are always prized over boring qualities like obedience and deference. In Dahl's world, creative disruption is presented in such an appealing, delicious light, that you can't help but join in the fun.
— Anna Leskiewicz inThe Telegraph, "Why we love the mischievous spirit of Roald Dahl".[131]
Regarded as "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century",[5] Dahl was named byThe Times one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.[8] He ranks amongst theworld's best-selling fiction authors with sales estimated at over 300 million,[3][4][7][10] and his books have been published in 63 languages.[6][202] In 2000, Dahl topped the list of Britain's favourite authors.[203] In 2003, four books by Dahl, led byCharlie and the Chocolate Factory at number 35, ranked among the Top 100 inThe Big Read, a survey of the British public by theBBC to determine the "nation's best-loved novel" of all time.[204] In surveys of British teachers, parents and students, Dahl is frequently ranked the best children's writer.[205][206] He won the first three AustralianBILBY Younger Readers Award; forMatilda,The BFG, andCharlie and the Chocolate Factory.[207]
In a 2006 list for theRoyal Society of Literature,Harry Potter creatorJ. K. Rowling namedCharlie and the Chocolate Factory one of her top ten books every child should read.[208] Critics have commented on the similarities between theDursley family fromHarry Potter and the nightmarish guardians seen in many of Dahl's books, such as Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker fromJames and the Giant Peach, Grandma fromGeorge's Marvellous Medicine, and the Wormwoods fromMatilda.[209]Barry Cunningham, who as publisher ofBloomsbury signed Rowling, cited his experiences travelling with Dahl in promotional book tours of the UK as helping him see the potential of Rowling's work, stating, "I think it was because I didn't come from a traditional background. I'd come from marketing and promotion. I'd seen how children relate to books".[148] In 2012,Matilda was ranked number 30 among all-time best children's novels in a survey published bySchool Library Journal, a monthly with primarily US audience. The Top 100 included four books by Dahl, more than any other writer.[210] The American magazineTime named three Dahl books in its list of the 100 Best Young-Adult Books of All Time, more than any other author.[211] Dahl is one of the most borrowed authors in British libraries.[212][213]
In 2012, Dahl was among the British cultural icons selected by artistPeter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork—the Beatles'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover—to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life he most admires.[214][215] In 2016 Dahl's enduring popularity was proved by his ranking inAmazon's the top five best-selling children's authors on the online store over the last year, looking at sales in print and on theKindle store.[216] In a 2017 UK poll of the greatest authors, songwriters, artists and photographers, Dahl was named the greatest storyteller of all time, ranking ahead ofDickens,Shakespeare, Rowling and Spielberg.[217] In 2017, the airlineNorwegian announced Dahl's image would appear on the tail fin one of theirBoeing 737-800 aircraft. He is one of the company's six "British tail fin heroes", joiningQueen singerFreddie Mercury, England World Cup winning captainBobby Moore, novelistJane Austen, pioneering pilotAmy Johnson and aviation entrepreneurFreddie Laker.[218][219]
^Solomon, Tom (2016),Roald Dahl's Marvellous Medicine, chapter 5, "A Lucky Piece of Cake": He was then sent to the USA, where a chance encounter withC. S. Forester encouraged him to try writing a story about flying, as recounted in his autobiographical story "Lucky Break". Solomon: "Dahl liked to say his writing career was started by the monumental bash on the head when his plane came down. He had heard that brain injuries can sometimes unleash people’s creative abilities, and fancied the idea that his head trauma had turned ‘a promising oil executive with no literary talents’ into a best-selling author. But was he right? Certainly there are well-described cases of people with no artistic inclinations at all whose brain injuries released incredible unknown creative potential...I do not think the syndrome applies to Dahl, though, because he showed lots of literary potential even before the accident. The weekly letters he wrote home to his mother from boarding school are packed full of entertaining stories, and vivid descriptions...Despite, or maybe even because of these reports, Dahl continued to dabble in writing as a young man...So long before the plane crash I believe Dahl had many of the ingredients that would make him the great writer he was to become. He loved literature, had a keen eye for detail and enjoyed writing mischievous tales. Although I do not think Dahl hadacquired savant syndrome, could the plane crash have contributed to his writing in some other way? I’d say the answer is yes, because, for example, it may well be that the head trauma caused mild damage to the frontal lobes of Dahl’s brain, affecting his character and personality, and releasing him from some of the inbuilt inhibitions that normally hold people back."
^"Water on the Brain".MedGadget: Internet Journal of Emerging Medical Technologies. 15 July 2005. Archived fromthe original on 22 May 2006. Retrieved11 May 2006.
^Flood, Alison (9 January 2012)."Roald Dahl stamps honour classic children's author".The Guardian.Archived from the original on 3 May 2014. Retrieved9 January 2012.Quentin Blake's famous illustrations ofThe Twits,Matilda andFantastic Mr Fox all feature on a new series of stamps from the Royal Mail, issued to celebrate the work of Roald Dahl. Out from tomorrow, the stamps also showJames and the Giant Peach andThe Witches, while a triumphant Charlie Bucket fromCharlie and the Chocolate Factory is brandishing a golden ticket on the new first class stamp.
^"The Big Read – Top 100 Books". BBC.Archived from the original on 31 October 2012. Retrieved16 September 2014. First of two pages. Archived 2 September 2014 by the publisher. Charles Dickens andTerry Pratchett led with five of the Top 100. The four extant Harry Potter novels all made the Top 25. The Dahl novels wereCharlie,The BFG,Matilda, andThe Twits.
^"Roald Dahl voted best author in primary teachers survey"Archived 1 November 2018 at theWayback Machine. BBC. 30 March 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2015. In this survey of primary school teachers Dahl also placed five books in the top ten:Charlie,The Twits,Danny the Champion of the World,The BFG, andGeorge's Marvellous Medicine.
^"BILBY Award Winners". Children's Book Council of Australia (Qld Branch) Inc.– BILBY AWARDS – Books I Love Best Yearly. Archived fromthe original on 9 February 2007. Retrieved25 September 2023.
^"100 Best Young-Adult Books".Time.Archived from the original on 2 July 2021. Retrieved29 October 2019.Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Danny the Champion of the World
Clifton, Tony; Leroy, Catherine (1983).God Cried. Quartet.ISBN978-0-7043-2375-9.Archived from the original on 17 April 2023. Retrieved23 September 2020.
McElmeel, Sharron L. (1999)."Roald Dahl".100 Most Popular Children's Authors: Biographical Sketches and Bibliographies. Libraries Unlimited.ISBN978-1-56308-646-5.
Sasser, Sanford Jr., ed. (1971).The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aviation and Space. Vol. 6. A.F.E. Press.
Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003)."(6223) Dahl".Dictionary of minor planet names / Lutz D. Schmadel. Hauptbd (5., rev. and enl. ed.). Berlin Heidelberg New York Hong Kong London Milan Paris Tokyo: Springer. p. 519.ISBN9783540002383.
"The Devious Bachelor", Sunday Book Review ofThe Irregulars, Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington by Jennet Conant,The New York Times, 17 October 2008
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