Editing Roald Dahl (section)

=== Repton School ===
[[File:Repton_School_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1303684.jpg|thumb|[[Repton School]] in [[Derbyshire]], which Dahl attended from 1929 to 1934|alt=Repton School, Derbyshire]]
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 [[fagging|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>{{cite web|url=http://www.corpun.com/webschuk.htm|title=WEB LINKS: corporal punishment in British schools|website=www.corpun.com|access-date=26 May 2016|archive-date=16 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160516110226/http://www.corpun.com/webschuk.htm|url-status=live}}</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>{{Cite news|url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/boarding-school-magic/#!|title=Boarding School Magic|work=Los Angeles Review of Books|access-date=6 July 2018|language=en-US|archive-date=5 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180705155517/https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/boarding-school-magic/#!|url-status=live}}</ref> Fisher was later appointed [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], and he [[Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II|crowned]] [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]] in 1953. However, according to Dahl's biographer [[Jeremy Treglown]],{{sfn|Treglown|2016|loc=Ch.2 note 28}} the caning took place in May 1933, a year after Fisher had left Repton; the headmaster was in fact [[John Traill Christie|J. T. Christie]], Fisher's successor as headmaster. Dahl said the incident caused him to "have doubts about religion and even about God".{{sfn|Dahl|2013a|p=178}} 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 (novel)|The Witches]]'', with the novel's main antagonist exclaiming that "children are rrreee-volting!".{{sfn|Dennison|2023|p=9}}

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>{{cite web |url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rdahl.htm |title=Roald Dahl |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210175324/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rdahl.htm |archive-date=10 February 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> He was exceptionally tall, reaching {{convert|6|ft|6|in}} in adult life.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,1000008184,00.html |title=Roald Dahl |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071201173227/http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,1000008184,00.html |archive-date=1 December 2007 |website=Penguin UK}}</ref> Dahl played sports including [[cricket]], [[Association football|football]] and [[golf]], and was made captain of the [[Squash (sport)|squash]] team.{{sfn|Shavick|1997|p=12}} 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>{{cite news|title=Repton School 'helped inspire Dahl' to write Charlie|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-14896806|publisher=BBC|date=14 July 2015|access-date=20 June 2018|archive-date=23 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181023151345/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-14896806|url-status=live}}</ref> Dahl dreamt of inventing a new chocolate bar that would win the praise of [[Cadbury family|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.{{sfn|Dahl|2013a|pp=156–158}} He noted only one unhappy memory of his holidays in Norway: at around the age of eight, he had to have his [[adenoid]]s removed by a doctor.{{sfn|Dahl|2013a|pp=80–82}} His childhood and first job selling kerosene in [[Midsomer Norton]] and surrounding villages in [[Somerset]] are subjects in ''Boy: Tales of Childhood''.{{sfn|Dahl|2013a|p=213}}