Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl

born 13 September 1916  (Roald Dahl’s Day) in Wales. His parents were from Norway, and named him after Roald Amundsen.

Schools:

     Llandaff    age 6-8  

     St Peter’s (boarding school) age 9-13:  wicked Matron

     Repton   (boarding school)   age 13-17:  cruel Headmaster

                                Cadbury chocolate – students tasted samples

                                Fives and squash – a captain of a school team

                                Photography

Adult life:

     1934  Shell company: Head office in London

     1936  Shell: East Africa

     1939   RAF: “Shot Down over Libya”

                        1943  The Gremlins

     1953   married actress Patricia Neal >> children Olivia, Tessa, Theo, Ophelia, Lucy

               (Olivia died of measles, Theo injured when his baby carriage was hit by a taxi)   >>   The Roald Dahl Foundation (children with epilepsy, blood disorders and brain injury in the UK)

     1990  died

Most famous children’s books

1961     James and the Giant Peach

1964    Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

1980    The Twits

1981     The BFG;   Revolting Rhymes

1982     The Witches

1988      Matilda

What Dahl said:

‘I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I’ll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else. If you’re kind, that’s it.’

‘All good books have to have a mixture of extremely nasty people – which are always fun – and some nice people. In every book or story there has to be somebody you can loathe. The fouler and more filthy a person is, the more fun it is to watch him getting scrunched.’

‘You can write about anything for children as long

as you’ve got humour.’

‘A story idea is liable to come flitting into the mind at any moment of the day, and if I don’t make a note of it at once, right then and there, it will be gone forever. So I must find a pencil, a pen, a crayon, a lipstick, and scribble a few words that will later remind me of the idea.’