Roald Dahl
Template:Short description Template:Pp-vandalism Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox writer
Roald DahlTemplate:Efn (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime fighter ace.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>Template:Sfn His books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide.<ref name="CBS Feb 23">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn He has been called "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century".<ref name=IND/>
Dahl was born in Wales to affluent Norwegian immigrant parents, and lived for most of his life in England. He served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He became a fighter pilot and, subsequently, an intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing 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.<ref name=Global/><ref name=BDC/> His awards for contribution to literature include the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the British 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".<ref name=TIM /> In 2021, Forbes ranked him the top-earning dead celebrity.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Dahl's short stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his children's books for their unsentimental, macabre, often darkly comic mood, featuring villainous adult enemies of the child characters.<ref name=INT/>Template:Sfn His children's books champion the kindhearted and feature an underlying warm sentiment.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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, George's Marvellous Medicine and Danny, the Champion of the World. His works for older audiences include the short story collections Tales of the Unexpected and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More.
Early life and education
[edit]Childhood
[edit]
Roald Dahl was born in 1916 at Villa Marie, Fairwater Road, in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, to Norwegians Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl (née Hesselberg).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfn Dahl's father, a wealthy shipbroker and self-made man, had emigrated to Britain from Sarpsborg, 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.<ref name="Dahl timeline"/> Roald's mother belonged to a well-established Norwegian family of lawyers, priests in the state church and wealthy merchants and estate owners, and emigrated to Britain when she married his father in 1911. Dahl was named after Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His first language was Norwegian, which he spoke at home with his parents and his sisters Astri, Alfhild, and Else. The children were raised in Norway's Lutheran state church, the Church of Norway, and were baptised at the Norwegian Church, Cardiff.Template:Sfn His maternal grandmother Ellen Wallace was a granddaughter of the member of parliament Georg Wallace and a descendant of an early 18th-century Scottish immigrant to Norway.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Dahl's sister Astri died from appendicitis at age seven in 1920 when Dahl was three years old, and his father died of pneumonia at age 57 several weeks later.<ref name="biography"/> Later in the same year, his youngest sister, Asta, was born.<ref name="Dahl timeline" /> Upon his death, Harald Dahl left a fortune assessed for probate of £158,917 10s. 0d. (equivalent to £Template:Inflation in Template:Inflation-year).Template:Inflation-fn<ref name="probate">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.Template:Sfn When he was six years old, Dahl met his idol Beatrix Potter, author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit featuring the mischievous Peter Rabbit, the first licensed fictional character.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The meeting, which took place at Potter's home, Hill Top in the Lake District, north west England, was dramatised in the 2020 television film, Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Potter">Template:Cite news</ref>
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Dahl first attended The Cathedral School, Llandaff. At age eight, he and four of his friends were caned by the headmaster after putting a dead mouse in a jar of gobstoppers at the local sweet shop,<ref name=IND/> which was owned by a "mean and loathsome" old woman named Mrs Pratchett.<ref name=IND/> The five boys named their prank the "Great Mouse Plot of 1924".Template:Sfn Mrs Pratchett inspired Dahl's creation of the cruel headmistress Miss Trunchbull in Matilda, and a prank, this time in a water jug belonging to Trunchbull, would also appear in the book.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Gobstoppers were a favourite sweet among British schoolboys between the two World Wars, and Dahl referred to them in his fictional Everlasting Gobstopper which was featured in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.Template:Sfn
Dahl transferred to St Peter's boarding school in Weston-super-Mare. His parents had wanted him to be educated at an English public school, and this proved to be the nearest because of the regular ferry link across the Bristol 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;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> they were broadcast in abridged form as BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week in 2016 to mark the centenary of his birth.<ref name="BBC Book of the Week 2016" /> Dahl wrote about his time at St Peter's in his autobiography Boy: Tales of Childhood.Template:Sfn Excelling at conkers—a traditional autumnal children's game in Britain and Ireland played using the seeds of horse chestnut trees—Dahl recollected, "at the ages of eight, nine and ten, conkers brought sunshine to our lives during the dreary autumn term".Template:Sfn
Repton School
[edit]
From 1929, when he was 13, Dahl attended Repton School in Derbyshire. Dahl disliked the hazing and described an environment of ritual cruelty and status domination, with younger boys having to act as personal servants for older boys, frequently subject to terrible beatings. His biographer Donald Sturrock described these violent experiences in Dahl's early life.<ref name="Dahl" /> Dahl expresses some of these darker experiences in his writings, which is also marked by his hatred of cruelty and corporal punishment.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
According to Dahl's autobiography, Boy: Tales of Childhood, a friend named Michael was viciously caned by headmaster Geoffrey 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."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Fisher was later appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, and he crowned Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. However, according to Dahl's biographer Jeremy Treglown,Template:Sfn the caning took place in May 1933, a year after Fisher had left Repton; the headmaster was in fact J. T. Christie, Fisher's successor as headmaster. Dahl said the incident caused him to "have doubts about religion and even about God".Template:Sfn 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 the Grand High Witch in his dark fantasy The Witches, with the novel's main antagonist exclaiming that "children are rrreee-volting!".Template:Sfn
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."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was exceptionally tall, reaching Template:Convert in adult life.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Dahl played sports including cricket, football and golf, and was made captain of the squash team.Template:Sfn As well as having a passion for literature, he developed an interest in photography and often carried a camera with him.<ref name="biography" />
During his years at Repton, the Cadbury chocolate company occasionally sent boxes of new chocolates to the school to be tested by the pupils.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Dahl dreamt 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, and to refer to chocolate in other children's books.<ref name="DahlChocolate" />
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 in Boy: Tales of Childhood, such as when he replaced the tobacco in his half-sister's fiancé's pipe with goat droppings.Template:Sfn He noted only one unhappy memory of his holidays in Norway: at around the age of eight, he had to have his adenoids removed by a doctor.Template:Sfn His childhood and first job selling kerosene in Midsomer Norton and surrounding villages in Somerset are subjects in Boy: Tales of Childhood.Template:Sfn
After school
[edit]After finishing his schooling, in August 1934 Dahl crossed the Atlantic on the Template:RMS and hiked through Newfoundland with the British Public Schools Exploring Society.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
In July 1934, Dahl joined the Shell Petroleum Company. Following four years of training in the United Kingdom, he was assigned first to Mombasa, Kenya, then to Dar es Salaam in the British colony of Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania).Template:Sfn Dahl explains in his autobiography Going Solo that only three young Englishmen ran the Shell company in the territory, of which he was the youngest and junior.Template:Sfn 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 encountered black mamba snakes and lions, among other wildlife.Template:Sfn
Fighter pilot
[edit]
In August 1939, as the Second World War loomed, the British made plans to round up the hundreds of Germans living in Dar-es-Salaam. Dahl was commissioned as a lieutenant into the King's African Rifles, commanding a platoon of Askari men, indigenous troops who were serving in the colonial army.Template:Sfn
In November 1939, Dahl joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) as an aircraftman with service number 774022.<ref name="LG5907" /> After a Template:Convert car journey from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi, 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 a De Havilland Tiger Moth, he flew solo;Template:Sfn Dahl enjoyed watching the wildlife of Kenya during his flights. He continued to advanced flying training in Iraq, at RAF Habbaniya, Template:Convert west of Baghdad. Following six months' training on Hawker Harts, Dahl was commissioned as a pilot officer on 24 August 1940, and was judged ready to join a squadron and face the enemy.<ref name="LG5907"/>Template:Sfn
He was assigned to No. 80 Squadron RAF, flying obsolete Gloster Gladiators, the last biplane fighter aircraft used by the RAF. Dahl was surprised to find that he would not receive any specialised training in aerial combat or in flying Gladiators. On 19 September 1940, Dahl and another pilot were ordered to fly their Gladiators by stages from Abu Sueir (near Ismailia, in Egypt) to 80 Squadron's forward airstrip Template:Convert south of Mersa 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 a landing in the desert.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref> The undercarriage hit a boulder and the aircraft crashed. Dahl's skull was fractured and his nose was smashed; he was temporarily blinded.Template:Sfn 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.<ref>Sturrock (2010) pp.131-132.</ref> He wrote about the crash in his first published work.Template:Sfn Dahl came to believe that the head injury he sustained in the crash resulted in his creative genius.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Dahl was rescued and taken to a first-aid post in Mersa Matruh, where he regained consciousness, but not his sight. He remained blind for six weeks due to massive swelling of the brain.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was transported by train to the Royal Navy hospital in Alexandria. 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 the no man's land between the Allied and Italian forces.Template:Sfn
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 the Greek campaign and based at Eleusina, near Athens. The squadron was now equipped with Hawker 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 four Bristol Blenheim light bombers. Dahl flew in his first aerial combat on 15 April 1941, while flying alone over the city of Chalcis. He attacked six Junkers Ju 88s that were bombing ships and shot one down. The next day, he shot down another Ju 88.Template:Sfn
On 20 April 1941, Dahl took part in an event he called the Battle of Athens, alongside the highest-scoring British Commonwealth ace of World War II, Pat Pattle, and Dahl's friend David 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".Template:Sfn
In May, as the Germans were pressing on Athens, Dahl was evacuated to Egypt. His squadron was reassembled in Haifa to take part in Operation Exporter. From there, Dahl flew sorties every day for a period of four weeks, shooting down a Vichy French Air Force Potez 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-held Rayak 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.<ref>Dahl, Roald (1986). Going Solo. London: Jonathan Cape, p. 193.</ref>
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."<ref>Dahl, Going Solo.</ref>
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 in Buckinghamshire.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Although at this time Dahl was only a pilot officer on probation, in September 1941 he was simultaneously confirmed as a pilot officer and promoted to war substantive flying officer.<ref name=LG35292 />
Diplomat, writer and intelligence officer
[edit]After being invalided home, Dahl was posted to an RAF training camp in Uxbridge. He attempted to recover his health enough to become an instructor.Template:Sfn 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 conversational abilities, Balfour appointed the young man as assistant air attaché at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. Initially resistant, Dahl was finally persuaded by Balfour to accept, and took passage on the Template:MS from Glasgow a few days later. He arrived in Halifax, Canada, on 14 April, after which he took a sleeper train to Montreal.Template:Sfn
Coming from war-starved Britain (in what was a wartime period of rationing in the United Kingdom), Dahl was amazed by the wealth of food and amenities to be had in North America.Template:Sfn 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, in Georgetown. But after ten days in his new posting, Dahl strongly disliked it, feeling he had taken on "a most ungodly unimportant job".Template:Sfn 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."Template:Sfn
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.Template:Sfn<ref name=Dietsch_2013 /> 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 the attack on Pearl Harbor.Template:Sfn
At this time Dahl met the noted British novelist C. S. Forester, who was also working to aid the British war effort. Forester worked for the British Ministry of Information and was writing propaganda for the Allied cause, mainly for American consumption.Template:Sfn 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.<ref name="BBC Studios 2016" /> In reality a number of changes were made to the original manuscript before publication.<ref>Sturrock (2010) p.169.</ref> 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 the Post. Dahl was promoted to flight lieutenant (war-substantive) in August 1942.<ref name=LG35971 /> Later he worked with such other well-known British officers as Ian Fleming (who later published the popular James Bond series) and David Ogilvy, promoting Britain's interests and message in the US and combating the "America First" movement.Template:Sfn
This work introduced Dahl to espionage and the activities of the Canadian spymaster William Stephenson, known by the codename "Intrepid."Template:Sfn During the war, Dahl supplied intelligence from Washington to Prime Minister Winston Churchill. As Dahl later said: "My job was to try to help Winston to get on with FDR, and tell Winston what was in the old boy's mind."<ref name="BBC Studios 2016">The Marvellous World of Roald Dahl. BBC Studios. 2016.</ref> Dahl also supplied intelligence to Stephenson and his organisation, known as British Security Coordination, which was part of MI6.<ref name=Dietsch_2013/> 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 to wing commander rank.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn
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 of squadron leader.<ref name=LG37681sup /> His record of five aerial victories, qualifying him as a flying 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.Template:Sfn
Post-war life
[edit]Template:Stack Dahl married American actress Patricia Neal on 2 July 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 mother of author, cookbook writer and former model Sophie Dahl (after whom Sophie in The BFG is named);<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Theo Matthew (born 1960);
- Ophelia Magdalena (born 1964);
- Lucy Neal (born 1965).<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
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 from hydrocephalus. 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 the shunt used to alleviate the condition.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfn The valve was a collaboration between Dahl, hydraulic engineer Stanley Wade, and London's Great Ormond Street Hospital neurosurgeon Kenneth Till, and was used successfully on almost 3,000 children around the world.<ref name="Olivia" />
In November 1962, Dahl's daughter Olivia died of measles encephalitis, age seven. Her death left Dahl "limp with despair", and feeling guilty about not having been able to do anything for her.<ref name="Olivia"/> Dahl subsequently became a proponent of immunisation—writing "Measles: A Dangerous Illness" in 1988 in response to measles cases in the UK—and dedicated his 1982 book The BFG to his daughter.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After Olivia's death and a meeting with a Church official, Dahl came to view Christianity as a sham.<ref name="faith"/> In mourning he had sought spiritual guidance from Geoffrey 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.<ref name="faith"/> Dahl recalled years later:
In 1965, Dahl's wife Patricia Neal suffered three burst cerebral 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.Template:Sfn This period of their lives was dramatised in the film The Patricia Neal Story (1981), in which the couple were played by Glenda Jackson and Dirk Bogarde.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1972, Roald Dahl met Felicity d'Abreu Crosland, niece of Lt.-Col. Francis D'Abreu who was married to Margaret Bowes Lyon, the first cousin of the Queen Mother, while Felicity was working as a set designer on an advert for Maxim coffee with the author's then wife, Patricia Neal.<ref name="secret">Template:Cite web</ref> Soon after the pair were introduced, they began an 11-year affair.<ref name="secret" /> In 1983 Neal and Dahl divorced and Dahl married Felicity,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news.</ref> at Brixton Town Hall, south London. Felicity (known as Liccy) gave up her job and moved into Gipsy House, Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire, which had been Dahl's home since 1954.Template:Sfn
In August 1983, Dahl reviewed Australian author Tony Clifton's God Cried, a picture book about the siege of West Beirut by the Israeli army during the 1982 Lebanon War.Template:Sfn The article, in which Dahl stated the Jews had never "switched so rapidly from much-pitied victims to barbarous murderers", appeared in the Literary Review and was the subject of media comment and criticism at the time.<ref name="Johnson1983">Template:Cite news</ref> Dahl wrote that Clifton's book would make readers "violently anti-Israeli", saying, "I am not anti-Semitic. I am anti-Israel."Template:Sfn 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 supporting Zionism. 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".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His comments invoked responses from Jewish colleagues and friends, with the philosopher Sir Isaiah 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",Template:Sfn while Amelia Foster, Jewish director of the Roald 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."<ref>"Das Roald-Dahl-Museum in Great Missenden" Template:Webarchive, dradio. Template:In lang. 16 November 2008.</ref> As a consequence of his comments, in 2014, the Royal Mint decided not to produce a coin to commemorate the centenary of Dahl's birth.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2020, Dahl's family published a statement on the official Roald Dahl website apologising for his antisemitism.<ref name="npr-MS">Template:Cite news</ref>
In the 1986 New Years Honours List, Dahl was offered an appointment to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), but turned it down. He reportedly wanted a knighthood so that his wife would be Lady Dahl.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Dahl's last significant involvement in medical charities during his lifetime was with dyslexia. In 1990, the year which saw the UN launch International Literacy Year, Dahl assisted with the British Dyslexia Association's Awareness Campaign.Template:Sfn 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" by Waterstones, Dahl donated the rights of the book to the Dyslexia Institute in London.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2012, Dahl was featured in the list of The New Elizabethans to mark the diamond 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".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In September 2016, Dahl's daughter Lucy received the BBC's Blue Peter Gold badge in his honour, the first time it had ever been awarded posthumously.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>
Writing
[edit]
Dahl's first published work, inspired by a meeting with C. S. Forester, was "A Piece of Cake", on 1 August 1942. The story, about his wartime adventures, was bought by The Saturday Evening Post for US$1,000 (Template:Inflation) and published under the title "Shot Down Over Libya".Template:Sfn
His first children's book was The Gremlins, published in 1943, about mischievous little creatures that were part of Royal Air Force folklore.Template:Sfn The RAF pilots blamed the gremlins for all the problems with the aircraft.Template:Sfn The protagonist Gus—an RAF pilot, like Dahl—joins forces with the gremlins against a common enemy, Hitler and the Nazis.Template:Sfn While at the British Embassy in Washington, Dahl sent a copy to the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt who read it to her grandchildren,Template:Sfn and the book was commissioned by Walt Disney for a film that was never made.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name="IND" />
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.Template:Sfn The Mystery Writers of America presented Dahl with three Edgar Awards for his work, and many were originally written for American magazines such as Collier's ("The Collector's Item" was Collier's Star Story of the week for 4 September 1948), Ladies' Home Journal, Harper's, Playboy and The New Yorker.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Works such as Kiss Kiss subsequently collected Dahl's stories into anthologies, and gained significant popularity. Dahl wrote more 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 collection Someone Like You; in 1959, the story "The Landlady"; and in 1980, the episode of Tales of the Unexpected based on "Skin".Template:Sfn
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 of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, filmed as a 1979 episode of Tales of the Unexpected, and also adapted into Quentin Tarantino's segment of the film Four Rooms (1995).Template:Sfn 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 stars Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre.Template:Sfn 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 by Alfred Hitchcock himself, an example of which was "Lamb to the Slaughter" (1958).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Dahl acquired a traditional Romanichal vardo in the 1960s, and the family used it as a playhouse for his children at home in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. He later used the vardo as a writing room, where he wrote Danny, the Champion of the World in 1975.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Dahl incorporated a similar caravan into the main plot of the book, where the young English boy, Danny, and his father, William (played by Jeremy Irons in the film adaptation) live in a vardo.Template:Sfn 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 in Matilda, where the title character devours classic literature by the age of four.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
His short story collection Tales of the Unexpected was adapted to a successful TV series of the same name, beginning with "Man from the South".Template:Sfn When the stock of Dahl's own original stories was exhausted, the series continued by adapting stories written in Dahl's style by other authors, including John Collier and Stanley Ellin.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Another collection of short stories, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, was published in 1977, and the eponymous short story was adapted into a short film in 2023 by director Wes Anderson with Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular character Henry Sugar and Ralph Fiennes as Dahl.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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.Template:Sfn In his novel My 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.Template:Sfn 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.<ref name="TELG" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
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.<ref name="Leszkiewicz" /> In 1994, the English language audiobook recording of the book was provided by Monty Python member Michael Palin.Template:Sfn Screenwriter Richard Curtis adapted it into a 2015 BBC television comedy film, Roald Dahl's Esio Trot, featuring Dustin Hoffman and Judi Dench as the couple.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Written in 1990 and published posthumously in 1991, Roald Dahl's Guide to Railway Safety was one of the last things he ever wrote.<ref name="Arts"/> In a response to rising levels of train-related fatalities involving children, the British Railways Board had asked Dahl to write the text of the booklet, and Quentin Blake to illustrate it, to help young people enjoy using the railways safely.<ref name="Arts">Template:Cite news</ref> The booklet is structured as a conversation with children, and it was distributed to primary 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."<ref name="Arts"/>
Children's fiction
[edit]Template:Quote box 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).<ref name="IND" /> These stock characters are possibly a reference to the abuse that Dahl stated that he experienced in the boarding schools he attended.<ref name="IND" /> In a biography of Dahl, Matthew Dennison wrote that "his writing frequently included protests against unfairness".Template:Sfn 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."Template:Sfn Anna Leskiewicz in The 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."<ref name="Leszkiewicz" />
While his whimsical fantasy stories feature an underlying warm sentiment, they are often juxtaposed with grotesque, darkly comic and sometimes harshly violent scenarios.<ref name="INT" />Template:Sfn The Witches, George's Marvellous Medicine and Matilda 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 for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Class-conscious themes also surface in works such as Fantastic Mr Fox and Danny, the Champion of the World where the unpleasant wealthy neighbours are outwitted.<ref name="BBC Studios 2016" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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 in James and the Giant Peach and the nasty farmer Boggis in Fantastic 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 from Willy 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. In Matilda, 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. In The Witches, Bruno Jenkins is lured by the witches (whose leader is the Grand High Witch) into their convention with the promise of chocolate, before they turn him into a mouse.Template:Sfn 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 in The BFG, the fox family in Fantastic Mr Fox and the trolls in The Minpins.Template:Sfn
In 1972, Eleanor Cameron, also a children's book author, published an article in The Horn Book criticising Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and its depiction of the African-derived Oompa-Loompas, who "have never been given the opportunity of any life outside of the chocolate factory".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1973, Dahl posted a reply, calling Cameron's accusations "insensitive" and "monstrous".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The debate between the two authors sparked much discussion and a number of letters to the editor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Receiving the 1983 World 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."<ref name="BBC Studios 2016" /> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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 adopting spoonerisms and malapropisms.<ref name="new words"/><ref name="Dahl Dictionary" /> The lexicographer Susan Rennie stated that Dahl built his new words on familiar sounds, adding:
As marketing director of Penguin Books in the 1980s, Barry Cunningham travelled the UK with Dahl on a promotional book tour, during which he asked Dahl what the secret of his success was, with Dahl responding, "the thing you've got to remember, is that humour is delayed fear, laughter is delayed fear."<ref name="Cunningham">Template:Cite news</ref> 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."<ref name="Cunningham"/>
A UK television special titled Roald Dahl's Revolting Rule Book, which was hosted by Richard E. Grant and aired on ITV on 22 September 2007, commemorated Dahl's 90th birthday and also celebrated his impact as a children's author in popular culture.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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!
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In 2016, marking the centenary of Dahl's birth, Rennie compiled The Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary which includes many of his invented words and their meaning.<ref name="Dahl Dictionary" /> Rennie commented that some of Dahl's words have already escaped his world, for example, Scrumdiddlyumptious: "Food that is utterly delicious".<ref name="Dahl Dictionary" /> In his poetry, Dahl gives a humorous re-interpretation of well-known nursery rhymes and fairy 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 in audiobook form, and narrated by actor Alan Cumming.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In 2023, Puffin Books, which holds the rights to all Dahl's children's books, published editions which included hundreds of revisions to the text at the advice of sensitivity readers.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The move was supported by a number of authors, including Society of Authors chair Joanne Harris and Diego Jourdan Pereira at Writer's Digest, but it drew many more critical responses.<ref name="roy">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Several public figures, including then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and author Salman Rushdie, spoke out against the changes.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Screenplays
[edit]For a brief period 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.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref>Roald Dahl Day: my glimpse into the great writer's imagination Template:Webarchive. The Guardian. Retrieved 22 November 2014.</ref> Dahl also began adapting his own novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was completed and rewritten by David Seltzer after Dahl failed to meet deadlines, and produced as the film Willy 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".<ref>Liz Buckingham, trustee for the Roald Dahl Museum, quoted in Tom Bishop: Willy Wonka's Everlasting Film Plot Template:Webarchive, BBC News, July 2005.</ref> 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, as well as an adaptation for the sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.<ref>Tom Bishop (July 2005) "Willy Wonka's Everlasting Film Plot" Template:Webarchive. BBC News.</ref>
He wrote the script for a film that began filming but was abandoned, Death, Where is Thy Sting-a-ling-ling?.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Influences
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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.<ref name="Potter"/> His other favourite authors included Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray and former Royal Navy officer Frederick Marryat, and their works made a lasting mark on his life and writing.Template:Sfn He named Marryat's Mr Midshipman Easy as his favourite novel.<ref name="new words"/> Joe Sommerlad in The Independent writes, "Dahl's novels are often dark affairs, filled with cruelty, bereavement and Dickensian 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."<ref name="Influences" />
Dahl was also influenced by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The "Drink Me" episode in Alice inspired a scene in Dahl's George's Marvellous Medicine where a tyrannical grandmother drinks a potion and is blown up to the size of a farmhouse.<ref name="Influences" /> Finding too many distractions in his house, Dahl remembered the poet Dylan 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Desert 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".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Dahl liked ghost stories, and claimed that Trolls by Jonas 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."<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref> When Dahl started writing and publishing his famous books for children, he included a grandmother character in The Witches, and later said that she was based directly on his own mother as a tribute.<ref name="infloox" /><ref name="infloox-1" />
Television
[edit]In 1961, Dahl hosted and wrote for a science fiction and horror television anthology series called Way Out, which preceded the Twilight Zone series on the CBS network for 14 episodes from March to July.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> One of the last dramatic network shows shot in New York City, the entire series is available for viewing at The Paley Center for Media in New York City and Los Angeles.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He also wrote for the satirical BBC comedy programme That Was the Week That Was, which was hosted by David Frost.<ref>McCann 2006, p. 156</ref>
The British television series, Tales of the Unexpected, originally aired on ITV between 1979 and 1988.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The series was released to tie in with Dahl's short story anthology of the same name, which had introduced readers to many motifs that were common in his writing.Template:Sfn The series was an anthology of different tales, initially based on Dahl's short stories.Template:Sfn 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 title Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected.Template:Sfn
Death and legacy
[edit]
Roald Dahl died on 23 November 1990, at the age of 74 of a rare cancer of the blood, myelodysplastic syndrome, in Oxford,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and was buried in the cemetery at the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England. His obituary in The Times was titled "Death silences Pied Piper of the macabre".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> According to his granddaughter, the family gave him a "sort of Viking funeral". He was buried with his snooker cues, some very good burgundy, chocolates, HB pencils and a power saw. Today, children continue to leave toys and flowers by his grave.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1996, the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery was opened at the Buckinghamshire County Museum in nearby Aylesbury.Template:Sfn The main-belt asteroid 6223 Dahl, discovered by Czech astronomer Antonín Mrkos, was named in his memory in 1996.Template:Sfn<ref name="MPC-Circulars-Archive" />
In 2002, one of Cardiff Bay's modern landmarks, the Oval Basin plaza, was renamed Roald 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 in Cardiff.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2016, the city celebrated the centenary of Dahl's birth in Llandaff. Welsh Arts organisations, including National Theatre Wales, Wales Millennium Centre and Literature Wales, came together for a series of events, titled Roald Dahl 100, including a Cardiff-wide City of the Unexpected, which marked his legacy.<ref name="Global" />
Dahl's charitable commitments in the fields of neurology, haematology and literacy during his life have been continued by his widow since his death, through Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity, formerly known as the Roald Dahl Foundation.<ref name="TELG" /> The charity provides care and support to seriously ill children and young people throughout Britain.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In June 2005, the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in the author's home village Great Missenden was officially opened by Cherie Blair, wife of then British Prime Minister Tony Blair, to celebrate the work of Roald Dahl and advance his work in literacy education.<ref>Clarie Heald (11 June 2005) "Chocolate doors thrown open to Dahl" Template:Webarchive. BBC News.</ref> Over 50,000 visitors from abroad, mainly from Australia, Japan, the United States and Germany, travel to the village museum every year.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2008, the UK charity Booktrust and Children's Laureate Michael Rosen inaugurated The Roald Dahl Funny Prize, an annual award to authors of humorous children's fiction.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 14 September 2009 (the day after what would have been Dahl's 93rd birthday) the first blue plaque in his honour was unveiled in Llandaff.<ref name="CDF" /> 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 autobiography Boy. It was unveiled by his widow Felicity and son Theo.<ref name="CDF" /> 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The anniversary of Dahl's birthday on 13 September is celebrated as "Roald Dahl Day" in Africa, the United Kingdom and Latin America.<ref name="guard" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Roald Dahl's 90th Birthday!, Random House UK. Retrieved 20 September 2007. Template:Webarchive</ref> Template:Quote box In honour of Dahl, the Royal Gibraltar Post Office issued a set of four stamps in 2010 featuring Quentin Blake's original illustrations for four of the children's books written by Dahl during his long career; The BFG, The Twits, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Matilda.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A set of six commemorative Royal Mail stamps was issued in 2012, featuring Blake's illustrations for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, The Twits, Matilda, Fantastic Mr Fox, and James and the Giant Peach.<ref name="guardian royal mail stamps" /> Dahl's influence has extended beyond literary figures. For instance, the film director Tim Burton recalled from childhood "the second layer [after Dr. 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 like that, and it's shaped everything I've felt that I've done."Template:Sfn Steven Spielberg read The 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."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Actress Scarlett Johansson named Fantastic Mr Fox one of the five books that made a difference to her.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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Regarded as "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century",<ref name="IND" /> Dahl was named by The Times one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.<ref name="TIM" /> He ranks amongst the world's best-selling fiction authors with sales estimated at over 300 million,<ref name="CBS Feb 23" />Template:Sfn<ref name="BDC" /><ref name="INT" /> and his books have been published in 63 languages.<ref name="Global" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2000, Dahl topped the list of Britain's favourite authors.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2003, four books by Dahl, led by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at number 35, ranked among the Top 100 in The Big Read, a survey of the British public by the BBC to determine the "nation's best-loved novel" of all time.<ref>Template:Cite web First of two pages. Archived 2 September 2014 by the publisher.
Charles Dickens and Terry Pratchett led with five of the Top 100. The four extant Harry Potter novels all made the Top 25. The Dahl novels were Charlie, The BFG, Matilda, and The Twits.</ref> In surveys of British teachers, parents and students, Dahl is frequently ranked the best children's writer.<ref>"Roald Dahl voted best author in primary teachers survey" Template:Webarchive. 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, and George's Marvellous Medicine.</ref><ref>Brown, Kat (2 March 2015). "Survey reveals 50 books that every child should read by 16" Template:Webarchive. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 16 July 2015. "Roald Dahl is still king of children's literature according to a survey for World Book Day."</ref> He won the first three Australian BILBY Younger Readers Award; for Matilda, The BFG, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In a 2006 list for the Royal Society of Literature, Harry Potter creator J. K. Rowling named Charlie and the Chocolate Factory one of her top ten books every child should read.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Critics have commented on the similarities between the Dursley family from Harry Potter and the nightmarish guardians seen in many of Dahl's books, such as Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker from James and the Giant Peach, Grandma from George's Marvellous Medicine, and the Wormwoods from Matilda.<ref>Sally Blakeney (1998). "The Golden Fairytale". The Australian. Retrieved 10 October 2022
- Template:Cite web</ref> Barry Cunningham, who as publisher of Bloomsbury 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".<ref name="Cunningham"/> In 2012, Matilda was ranked number 30 among all-time best children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a monthly with primarily US audience. The Top 100 included four books by Dahl, more than any other writer.<ref name="SLJChapter2012">Template:Cite web</ref> The American magazine Time named three Dahl books in its list of the 100 Best Young-Adult Books of All Time, more than any other author.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Dahl is one of the most borrowed authors in British libraries.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2012, Dahl was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Peter 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2016 Dahl's enduring popularity was proved by his ranking in Amazon's the top five best-selling children's authors on the online store over the last year, looking at sales in print and on the Kindle store.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In a 2017 UK poll of the greatest authors, songwriters, artists and photographers, Dahl was named the greatest storyteller of all time, ranking ahead of Dickens, Shakespeare, Rowling and Spielberg.<ref>"Banksy and Yate-born JK Rowling make list of 50 greatest storytellers of all time" Template:Webarchive. Bristol Post. Retrieved 1 September 2017.</ref> In 2017, the airline Norwegian announced Dahl's image would appear on the tail fin one of their Boeing 737-800 aircraft. He is one of the company's six "British tail fin heroes", joining Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, England World Cup winner Bobby Moore, novelist Jane Austen, pioneering pilot Amy Johnson and aviation entrepreneur Freddie Laker.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In September 2021, Netflix acquired the Roald Dahl Story Company in a deal worth more than £500 million ($686 million).<ref name="Yahoo! Finance">Template:Cite web</ref> A film adaptation of Matilda the Musical was released by Netflix and Sony Pictures Releasing in December 2022, and the cast includes Emma Thompson as Miss Trunchbull.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The next Dahl adaptation for Netflix, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, was released in September 2023, with its director Wes Anderson also adapting three additional Dahl short stories for Netflix in 2024.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Filmography
[edit]Writing roles
[edit]| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | Suspense | Story | 1 episode |
| 1952 | CBS Television Workshop | ||
| Lux Video Theatre | |||
| 1954 | Philip Morris Playhouse | ||
| Danger | |||
| 1955 | Star Tonight | ||
| Cameo Theatre | |||
| 1958 | Suspicion | ||
| 1958–61 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | 7 episodes | |
| 1961 | 'Way Out | 1 episode | |
| 1962 | That Was the Week That Was | ||
| 1964 | 36 Hours | Feature film | |
| 1965–67 | Thirty-Minute Theatre | 3 episodes | |
| 1967 | You Only Live Twice | Screenplay | Feature film |
| 1968 | Late Night Horror | Writer | 1 episode |
| Chitty Chitty Bang Bang | Screenplay | Feature film | |
| Jackanory | 10 episodes | ||
| 1971 | The Road Builder | Feature film | |
| Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory | Story/screenplay | ||
| 1979–88 | Tales of the Unexpected | Writer/story | 26 episodes |
| 1985 | The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Story | 1 episode |
| 1989 | The BFG | Feature film | |
| The Book Tower | Writer | 1 episode | |
| Danny, the Champion of the World | Story | TV movie |
Presenting roles
[edit]| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | 'Way Out | Host | 5 episodes |
| 1965 | Thirty-Minute Theatre | Narrator | 1 episode |
Non-presenting appearances
[edit]| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | The 41st Annual Academy Awards | Himself | Audience member |
| 1978 | Read All About It | 1 episode | |
| This Is Your Life | 1 episode | ||
| 1979–85 | Tales of the Unexpected | 32 episodes | |
| 1989 | Going Live! | 1 episode |
Publications
[edit]Notes
[edit]References
[edit]Sources
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Further reading
[edit]- Jason Hook, Roald Dahl: The Storyteller, Raintree, 2004
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External links
[edit]Template:Commons category Template:Wikiquote
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- Roald Dahl's darkest hour (biography excerpt)
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- Radio interview by NRK (1975) Template:In lang
- "The Devious Bachelor", Sunday Book Review of The Irregulars, Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington by Jennet Conant, The New York Times, 17 October 2008
- Profile of Patricia Neal (2011) on Voice of America (VOAnews.com), with transcript
- Footage of one Whitbread Book Prize presentation by Dahl (1982)
- Michael Coren, How I outed Roald Dahl as a venomous antisemite
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- 1916 births
- 1990 deaths
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